Orange with Media Services, published on Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 5:19 p.m.
In Herblay (Val-d’Oise) Aubagne, Mérignac, Metz, Rennes or Lille, dozens of Decathlon employees mobilized on Saturday January 14 in front of several stores in the chain, in order to demand better wages. A call for a strike had been launched Thursday, January 12, by the CFDT.
Saturday January 14, several dozen employees of the Decathlon chain of stores are mobilizing in front of several brands of the chain in France, including in the Paris region in Val-d’Oise.
“There is a towing operation to customers in front of the Herblay store, as well as a call for a walkout at the start of the followingnoon”, detailed to AFP Sébastien Chauvin, CFDT union representative.
The trade unionist affirms that the stores of Aubagne, Mérignac, Metz, Rennes or Lille are also concerned. The date of mobilization is not a choice of chance : it is the first Saturday of the winter sales, which usually attracts large crowds.
According to Sebastien Chauvin, the social movement of employees is “well perceived” by Decathlon customers. This is the second strike action, following a first in October 2021.
Among its demands, the CFDT calls for a fairer distribution of the company’s financial performance between shareholders and employees. The union advances the figure of 400 million euros in dividends paid for the past year.
“We ask for the systematic repercussion (of increases) of the SMIC” as well as “3% gain in purchasing power” additional, underlines Sébastien Chauvin, union representative of the CFDT.
A meeting scheduled for January 24 with the management
The group has “significantly increased the salaries of its employees” since January 2022, advanced Decathlon in a statement received by AFP on Friday, “from 9% to 9.8% for fellow employees and supervisors”.
These figures mainly reflect the low level of wages in the company, answers Sébastien Chauvinconsidering that the increase granted by the group brings them closer to the automatic revaluations of the minimum wage last year, due to high inflation.
According to the shop steward, a meeting with management is scheduled for January 24.
