In order for large companies to participate in the national solidarity effort in this period of health crisis, a collective legal action has been launched. The instigators demand the freezing of their dividends and a participation in a solidarity fund for small and medium-sized enterprises.

INTERVIEW

As a sign of solidarity, some companies have already announced that they are giving up their dividends. This is the case of Hermès, Chanel and even L'Oréal. This Thursday on Europe 1, Denis Machuel, world director general of the Sodexo group announced that he would cut his salary in half during the next six months, just like the president of the board of directors. A measure followed by the executive of Sodexo which also lowers its remuneration and no bonus will be paid to the 200 main managers of the group.

To compel solidarity from all large companies, lawyer Christophe Lèguevaque, co-director of collective actions of My smartcab.fr launched a collective action on Thursday for the dividends of companies. "The objective is to get the government to put in place a simple and understandable rule for all," he explains on Europe 1.

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"We cannot let big companies haphazardly decide what they are going to do. So the government has to make a regulatory decision that will apply to all companies that are ready to pay out 50 billion dividends in the coming weeks, "added the lawyer.

Freezing of dividends and participation in solidarity

"We are asking for two things: first, that it freezes, in view of the exceptional circumstances, the dividends that are being prepared and that it provides for an exceptional contribution which will make it possible to finance the solidarity fund for small and medium-sized enterprises. And therefore which will revive the economy when the time comes when we are out of this crisis ", specifies Christophe Lèguevaque.

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He criticizes the "indecent" behavior of certain companies which do not seem to want to play the game of national solidarity. "The BNP has three billion dividends to distribute, these three billion could be used for many things rather than being distributed to shareholders," deplores the lawyer. "The effort must be shared by all, in the name of national solidarity."

The Constitution as a support

To carry out this legal action, the lawyers are based on the Constitution, and article 12 of the preamble of the Constitution of 1946. "The Nation proclaims the solidarity and the equality of all the French in front of the charges which result from the calamities national. "

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"We are indeed in the presence of a national calamity, it is therefore necessary that all the French without exception, like businesses, participate in the solidarity effort", adds Christophe Lèguevaque. A legal request to the Council of State will be filed next week, as part of an interim release. He hopes to be followed by the government.