And the Ubisoft logo
The French video game manufacturer Ubisoft announced Wednesday that a meeting with union organizations and CSE meetings will be held on January 22 in France, after months of tension with employees, operational difficulties and turbulence on the stock market.
“The CSE meetings and a meeting with the union organizations will be held on Wednesday January 22, 2025 in order to establish our 2025 work plan on the social issues that interest Ubisoft and allow the company to regain its serenity,” indicated Ubisoft in a statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday.
The manufacturer of the games “Assassin's Creed” and “Rabbids” said it wanted to “appease and strengthen its dialogue with the company's various social partners, unions such as CSE”.
The group, whose main shareholder remains the family of the founders, the Guillemot brothers, has called these meetings “Social Consultation meetings”.
The CFE-CGC Fieci reacted to Reuters on Wednesday morning by asking why this consultation was happening “after the NAOs (obligatory annual negotiations, which concern in particular salaries) were rushed to finish by mid/end of January, i.e. before this consultation” .
A representative of the Union of Video Game Workers (STJV) also observed to Reuters that “the date at the end of January also corresponds to the scheduled end of negotiations on salaries and teleworking”.
The two unions said they were not informed in advance of this communication and this meeting. The STJV said it was not informed of the agenda of the meeting with the trade union organizations.
In mid-October, a strike movement mobilized employees on several Ubisoft sites in France, after a first social movement in February.
The unions deplored a decision considered brutal to limit teleworking, as well as the lack of listening from management.
On December 9, the Union of Video Game Workers (STJV) once again regretted in a press release published on its site “unfruitful and worrying exchanges” with “negotiations carried out urgently to end at the end of January”.
As reported by Reuters earlier this month, the Guillemot family has been in talks with Ubisoft's second-largest shareholder, Chinese giant Tencent, and other investors in recent weeks about financing a management buyout, d 'after two sources familiar with the subject.
Ubisoft's stock fell to its lowest level in ten years in September, after the group cut its forecast due to weaker sales than expected and after the launch of the game “Assassin's Creed Shadows” was postponed.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, the stock fell 2.39% to 12.87 euros at 09:40 GMT.
(Written by Florence Loève, edited by Kate Entringer and Augustin Turpin)
