To “reduce the gap with the best of its competitors”, Renault signed a social agreement providing for an increase in the working hours of executives, who will have less freedom to resort to teleworking in exchange for better health coverage and end-of-career adjustment measures.
“There are efforts, but there is also social progress in quite a few areas,” commented the director of human resources (HRD) of Renault France, Maximilien Fleury.
The agreement, signed by the CFE-CGC and the CFDT – the majority between them -, but not the CGT, should allow the automobile group to be more flexible and gain productivity, while the sector is faced with major difficulties.
Executives will thus lose three days of annual leave on average. Renault also wants to better pay those who work more, to recognize their efforts. Days worked on Saturdays could thus be paid, instead of offering an additional day of recovery.
The rules allowing teleworking will also be tightened. Until now, it was possible to work from home three days a week, plus 35 days that could be dropped off when desired.
– Productivity –
From now on, it will be two days per week plus 35 days, but without exceeding the limit of three days of teleworking per week. Teleworking may even be suspended, for a maximum period of three weeks, if a project such as the launch of a vehicle requires the physical presence of teams, detailed Maximilien Fleury.
“Three days of teleworking with two fixed days per week is a good compromise,” admitted CFDT central union delegate Jean-François Nanda, recognizing that the current formula had an impact on the work collective.
This agreement, which covers the period 2025-2027, concerns the group’s 40,000 employees in France, of whom 15,000 work in Ile-de-France, mainly in the tertiary sector, and 15,000 in factories throughout the territory.
The previous agreement, which concerned the period 2022-2024, also provided for efforts “but which focused much more on the factories”, recalled Mr. Fleury. In exchange, they had obtained guarantees of activity and “today, all the French factories of the Renault group have projects and project prospects”, he insisted.
This time, no guarantee is provided for engineering, but “what makes the activity is performance”, said the group’s HR director, insisting on the need to increase productivity to face the competition.
– Toolbox –
In exchange for these efforts, Renault plans to significantly improve the health coverage of its employees. This represents 30 euros more per month covered by the company, according to the CFDT. End-of-career support measures, with gradual retirement and part-time work two years before the end of the activity, are planned.
While the European automobile industry is suffering in its transition to electric and must face Chinese and American rivals (Tesla), ahead of this niche, Renault has also promised to maintain 100% of remuneration in the event of activity partial constraint in factories.
Some factories are forced to close during work to adapt the assembly line to electric vehicles, or cannot operate due to a lack of parts delivered on time.
The employees of these sites will retain their remuneration during these events thanks to “a solidarity fund” into which all of the group’s employees will occasionally pay, when necessary, 0.2% of their income.
“This is what made us switch” to accept the elimination of the three days of leave, said Jean-François Nanda. “2025 is going to be a tense year” for the automobile industry, he anticipates. “The lowest-income employees are the manufacturers”, the most exposed to forced partial activity, “so we wanted them to be properly compensated”, indicated the union representative.
Finally, to be ready to adapt quickly to the “employment transformation” that the automobile industry is rapidly going through, Renault has equipped itself with a “toolbox”.
It provides for training, mobility or even workforce reduction processes wherever necessary, under the control of the unions.
