Paris (AFP)

Elior at the beginning of the month, Sodexo on Tuesday with a social plan covering more than 2,000 jobs in France: collective catering companies are paying a heavy price for the Covid-19 epidemic, which is permanently disrupting consumption habits.

Even the world number two in the sector, present in 67 countries and with some 470,000 employees, is not spared.

Employees teleworking, canteens shunned: Sodexo has been hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic, which is on the rise in Europe.

The company therefore announced on Tuesday a draft job protection plan (PSE) "which would involve the net elimination of 2,083 jobs", or nearly 7% of its workforce, "mostly in the Business services segment" .

“At the same time, discussions with representative bodies will soon be initiated for a project concerning the headquarters of the Sodexo group, where less than a hundred positions should be impacted”.

"We are not far from 2,500 job cuts, counting the 2,080 jobs in collective catering, the 100 jobs out of 500 at the group's headquarters, and the 184 job cuts announced at Lenôtre", observes Nabil Azzouz with AFP, Federal Secretary FO-FGTA.

Lenôtre, caterer owned by Sodexo since 2011, is the subject of another "job protection plan which would involve 197 positions at Maison Lenôtre", specifies the communication from Sodexo.

Events are also one of the sectors most affected by the health crisis.

- "First PSE" -

The group, which is due to publish its 2019/20 annual results Thursday morning, indicates that it wants to "safeguard its competitiveness" by developing its offers and adapting "its production and operating models", believing that "these developments will make it possible to better combine the news market expectations while retaining all of its activities and know-how in the field of services ".

As for the social impact of these reorganizations, Sodexo wishes to limit it "thanks to a project to support the mobility of its employees, on a voluntary basis by broadening the choices available to them in all the group's activities by France (more than 600 positions available to date in France) ".

On the union side, Nabil Azzouz is asking "to make maximum use of mobility towards other sectors that are doing better, such as cleaning, the medico-social or the penitentiary, where Sodexo also does collective catering. hopes to drop below 1,000 job cuts ".

Eric Villecroze, FO central union delegate (first union organization at Sodexo), for his part asks for "details on the calculation and the method" used by management to calculate "the number of jobs permanently destroyed by the crisis, for example in companies which like Airbus implement teleworking up to 3 days a week, which causes a considerable loss of meals ".

According to him, an extraordinary economic and social council (CSEC) is convened on November 5 and 6.

"This is the first PES that we must negotiate at Sodexo", which employs "42,000 people in France including 21,000 on permanent contracts in collective catering".

"Seven years ago, we had a PDV (voluntary departure plan) covering around a hundred jobs, nothing comparable," he still observes.

But the Covid-19 has been there.

Sodexo, which every day offered 100 million consumers services ranging from catering, reception, upkeep, cleaning and technical maintenance of installations to a range of nurseries and concierge services, was forced to close numerous sites around the world since the start of the health crisis.

Its competitor Elior had announced the elimination of 1,888 positions in France in early October.

© 2020 AFP