2024-02-13 13:33:59
The Paris commercial court, which examined the accelerated rescue plan for the large retail chain Casino on Monday in a public hearing, will deliver its verdict on February 26 at 3 p.m. This is the last expected step before validation of the takeover of the group by the new buyers.
Scheduled for last week, the hearing to deal with the case of the Casino group’s accelerated rescue plan was finally rescheduled for Monday February 12. Its postponement had been retained, as a reminder, by the court following the request of the Central Social Economic Committee (CSEC), which had expressed reservations on the plan judged by the lawyers of the Committee devoid of a «social volet».
Persistent differences between Casino management and the CSEC
During the interventions, the current management as well as the administrators and legal representatives gave a favorable opinion to the plan. Which is far from being the case for the CSEC lawyers who regretted, once once more, the inadequacy of the social aspect and issued an unfavorable opinion. “Employees still do not know how many positions will be eliminated, what the reclassification measures will be, what the compensation will be”argued Olivier Debeine, one of the lawyers of the said committee.
Indeed, between the time this safeguard plan was negotiated and today, the group has « bump » with its competitors Auchan, Intermarché et Carrefour to sell them 288 large stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets. A large-scale operation which will result in the transfer of some 12,800 employees and which will have serious consequences for the support functions within what will remain of the group. In total, unions estimate that 6,000 jobs are at risk.
The commitments of the buyers considered imprecise
On the side of the consortium of buyers, the commitments made are to “preserve employment as much as possible” and maintain a headquarters in Saint-Étienne. Concerning employees who will change brands, a “specific mission to measure social consequences” will be put in place, a spokesperson recalled on Monday. However, the inter-union did not obtain commitments “precise, quantified and concrete from the consortium” on the “supra-legal compensation” as well as on top “opportunities for voluntary departure” mentioned.
The unfavorable opinion of the public prosecutor
The public prosecutor also issued an unfavorable opinion on the plan, regretting in particular a “too great a disparity between the plan initially presented” and the one on which the court must rule, as well as “the perfectly incomplete content of the social aspect”. While awaiting the verdict of February 26, the future of Casino therefore remains in uncertainty which might well lead to “a situation of cessation of payments” in the case of rejection of the plan by the court, recalled the commissioner judge.
Conversely, if the plan is approved, the change of hands procedure might be finalized with the entry into the running of the new buyers next March.
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