Lille (AFP)

The 138 employees of WN, buyer last year of the Whirlpool plant in Amiens, which were not taken over by Ageco Agencement, received Monday in person a summons to interview prior to dismissal for economic reasons, noted an AFP correspondent.

WN employees, placed June 3 in receivership for lack of concrete business opportunities, gathered Monday on the former site of the dryer factory Whirlpool Amiens.

They were summoned to the factory before the judicial administrator (or his representatives) and the Direccte (regional management of companies, consumer competition, labor and employment) they received in person a mail notifying them of their future redundancy.

On July 30, the commercial court approved the offer of Ageco Agencement, which undertook to take back 44 WN employees, leaving 138 employees behind the scenes.

Ageco Agencement (65 employees, 20 million euros turnover in 2018) is already established on the site since the closure of the US dryer manufacturer's factory in May 2018.

The assignment plan "does not provide for the maintenance of your post and your employment which are consequently canceled.The judgment dated July 30, 2019 authorized your dismissal for economic reasons.I am therefore forced to consider your dismissal for economic motive, "wrote the court administrator in the mail of an employee that AFP was able to consult.

Unreported persons will have to report to the WN factory on August 26th for an interview prior to dismissal.

"I did not necessarily want to be taken over by Ageco Agencement, I want to do something that I really like now," reacted Geoffrey, a worker for twenty years in Whirlpool and WN.

But for others, the situation is more difficult to accept, like Katia, 21 years of seniority, which has not been taken. "I do not understand, it was explained that the skills criterion came last and that they gave priority to seniority, age and family situation," she lamented.

Farid denounces him "a big mess". "The result is amazing especially when you see all the public and private money that has been invested in this box," he said.

© 2019 AFP