“No salary for three months”: the distress of employees of several supermarkets bought from Casino

Storage warehouses as empty as the shelves. A can here, a few bottles there, leftover biscuits: at first glance, everything indicates that the Leader Price store in Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne) has permanently closed… With the exception notable for the presence of its eight employees, still under contract. “It’s been like this since the end of Augusttestifies, in the on-site report of the TF1 news visible at the top of this article, Angélique, employed here for twenty-seven years. No more deliveries, no more goods, no more nothing… No more salary, above all! She hasn't paid us for three months.” The entrepreneur who bought the brand in June 2024 from the Casino group no longer even answers the phone.

“We can't get it. At the beginning of September, she was selling us dreams! She told us to place an order, but she wouldn't validate it because she didn't pay”still describes Angélique. So, she and her seven colleagues continue to come to work as if nothing had happened, for fear that they will end up being accused of abandoning their position. “We have to stay at our usual hours, our usual schedule, but with a boss like that who doesn’t pay us, who doesn’t give us work, we can’t last long”reacts another employee, sitting at a cash register no longer seeing any customers pass by.

Enough to shock the inhabitants of the working-class district where this store remains the only mass distribution business. “They don’t deserve this. And for me who lives right across the street, it was very useful”sighs a mother… “Even we were going to get supplies there, when we needed salad or blue cheese, but since this summer, we have come out empty-handed”adds the neighboring baker. A petition in support of employees has already gathered more than 3,000 handwritten signatures, while a fundraiser has been opened to help them. “We sent a registered letter, common to the girls, to the public prosecutor, so that there would be a summary judgment and so that we could get them out of there”glisse Jean-Luc Amelon, of the departmental Union CGT Haute-Marne.

The town hall and the prefecture also took part in this movement, so that a cessation of activity could be judicially initiated and the store employees obtain compensation, the Labor Code allowing any employee to terminate their contract in the event of failure of the employer. But everyone will have to arm themselves with patience: the six employees of Leader Price in Brassac-les-Mines (Puy-de-Dôme), faced with exactly the same situation and having initiated similar procedures, are coming , after having obtained the closure of the store by the gendarmes, to see the commercial court of Clermont-Ferrand postpone the study of their file until January 16, 2025…

Empty shelves, unpaid employees: these abandoned convenience storesSource : News 8 p.m. Week

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In this other report from the TF1 news above, one of our teams goes to Fontenay-Trésigny, in Seine-et-Marne, where a Spar store, also formerly owned by Casino, closed its doors two months ago . With a similar situation. “We know that today the rents are not paid, that the electricity is not paid, that the suppliers, a large part, are not paid, and that the employees find themselves without wages.“, summarizes Jordan Morbois, its manager, in front of our camera. The store, like the two others mentioned above, was sold last summer to the same new manager. But for three months, here too, she has no longer given any news. The eight employees found themselves without activity and took legal action. In total, the owner bought six stores in France from the Casino group.

Contacted by TF1, the manager in question ensures that the situation will improve in the coming days. What happened when these supermarkets were sold? The Casino group responds, regarding the Leader Price of Saint-Dizier: “At the time of the transaction, the manager presented sufficient guarantees to complete the sale of the store and thus preserve jobs, which remains the brand's priority.“Employees, for their part, today expect justice to resolve their situation.