It's the cold shower at the InterDigital laboratory in Cesson-Sévigné near Rennes.

At the end of the week, the American group announced the elimination of 60 positions on the site, which it had bought in 2019 from the French group Technicolor.

"The management of the group has just announced to the staff representatives the opening of the legal procedure for a plan of massive job cuts of more than 40% of the workforce", denounced the intersyndicale Sud-CFDT in a statement. communicated.

Management has confirmed the elimination of 60 positions out of 180 research engineers.

“The entire post-production industry is in the midst of a crisis with the Covid,” said a spokesperson.

He indicated that InterDigital was cutting some of the positions in "extremely interesting activities", but which did not correspond to its economic model and others which were the subject of a contract with Technicolor.

“There have been payment difficulties over the past twelve months.

It was an activity that no longer had a future for us, ”added the spokesperson.

"A group in excellent financial health", according to the unions

The unions deemed this social plan "unacceptable for a group in excellent financial health which boasts of having further increased its profits during the pandemic and which has, for example, bought back over the past five years for nearly $ 380 million of its own actions with the sole aim of raising the price ”.

"This behavior is unacceptable for a group which has benefited from public money to the tune of 12 million euros of Research Tax Credit in 2020", they add.

Bertrand Chupeau, CFDT union delegate, regretted a "brutal reorganization which falls without warning while the company presents excellent results".

Management assured that no layoffs would take place before the end of September and that the Rennes laboratory would remain InterDigital's largest in the world.

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  • Reindeer

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  • Technology

  • Social plans

  • Laboratory

  • Economy

  • Dismissal