Bordeaux (AFP)
The Council of State confirmed Monday the cancellation of the social plan implemented in 2017 at the ex-automotive supplier in the Creuse GM&S, paving the way for better compensation of employees in this social file that had poisoned the first months of the Macron presidency.
The Council of State reinforced the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeaux which had estimated in October 2018 that this PSE (job safeguard plan) challenged in justice by employees, was based on "tainted grounds errors of law ".
The highest administrative authority essentially considered that this PSE, approved by the regional director of enterprises, consumption, labor and employment of the New Aquitaine Region, should not have based the criteria of order of dismissal on the basis of seniority only, whereas the law also requires taking into account personal situations (single parents, difficult reintegration, etc.) as well as professional qualities.
This decision "opens the door to compensation for the employees who seized the industrial tribunal of Guéret", explained to AFP the lawyer of the ex-GM & S, Me Jean-Louis Borie.
The GM&S factory in La Souterraine was taken over for a symbolic euro in September 2018, with 120 jobs kept out of 277.
Among the dismissed workers, who had received only the statutory compensation, 55 had seized the industrial tribunal, body awaiting the decision of the Council of State to reopen the file, added Me Borie, according to which the employees can now hope for an "additional indemnity paid by guaranteed wages insurance (AGS, financed by an employer contribution).
"This comes at a time when many are at the end of their rights," said the lawyer, according to whom only around a third of the 157 dismissed workers have found work.
Legal proceedings are still underway on the GM&S file, a complaint by employees who accuse Renault and Peugeot, main principals, of having caused the fall of the car supplier in the Creuse and claim the two manufacturers to compensate them.
© 2020 AFP