One billion euros in dividends paid by Decathlon on one side. 2,400 jobs threatened at Auchan on the other. Owner of these two brands, the Mulliez galaxy is under fire from union criticism.
“How can we condone that Decathlon, a brand of the group, can pay a pharaonic sum of dividends and that Auchan, a brand of the same group, can massacre the lives of thousands of people by eliminating 2,400 jobs? », asked the CGT on Tuesday in a press release.
“A use of value, not wealth”
“In shock”, the CFDT Decathlon estimated that this sum was “out of the ordinary” in view of the results not achieved. She “calls on the 20,000 employees of the brand to mobilize and strike” on Saturday in the stores.
For his part, the president of Decathlon, Fabien Derville, justified the payment of a billion euros in dividends to the Mulliez family by emphasizing, in an interview with The Voice of the Norththat the objective was “a more value-creating use, not wealth”. He nevertheless recognized that “the momentum was not ideal at the media level”.
Fabien Derville, also a member of the management board of the Association Famille Mulliez (AFM), did not want to detail the planned use of the funds. He only indicated that “the vocation is entrepreneurial”: “new professions, acceleration of our core companies and where necessary support for transformation”.
