October 2020: seventeen years following the factory closed, 296 former matrachians finally receive their due. The price of lives shattered by the closure of the factory and totally illegal dismissals.
Seventeen years. Seventeen years have passed since the end of Matra in Romorantin when 296 matracians finally receive their due. They are among the 947 who were made redundant in 2003. On Wednesday October 14, 2020, at 3 p.m., they entered Sud Expo to receive their compensation. Between 9,600 and 26,500 € each, i.e. a total budget of 4.2 million euros. The price of lives shattered by the closure of the factory and totally illegal dismissals.
So decided the Bourges Court of Appeal: in 2003, they were purely and simply “dismissed without real and serious cause” by Lagardere. The legal battle lasted a decade. And even a little more, because it all started with an employee, Alain Lebert. A few years following the closure of the factory, justice recognizes that, in its case, the Lagardère group had not respected its obligation of reclassification. At that time, Lagardère did not seem to understand that this individual case might set a precedent…
“A little balm to the heart”
Let’s go back: when the factory closed, Matra had kept a bicycle and spare parts business. In the spare parts activity, Matra is opening around fifty positions for the reclassification of certain laid-off employees. “However, they were all qualified to occupy the positions retained in the spare parts department. Matra has never been able to justify real objective criteria: criteria of competence, seniority, etc. »explains the lawyer of the matraciens, Me Christian Quinet. With the help of the CGT, and in particular Gérard Machard, hundreds of files have been put together.
And the Lebert case will indeed spread: the matracians win in the first instance. Lagardère appealed and, surprisingly, temporarily won the case. The matrachians then seized the Court of Cassation which ruled in their favor. The decision of the Bourges Court of Appeal, which confirms it in 2020, is then only a formality. The court victory “restored a little balm to the heart”, comments Gérard Machard.
The same scenario, or almost, is repeated with around thirty ex-Matra dismissed in 2002, once more “without real and serious cause”. On September 3, 2021, by court decision, they in turn obtained a total of €435,000. Almost twenty years following the first social plan at Matra.
READ ALSO. Loir-et-Cher: Romorantin facing “the bleeding of Matra”