This morning, during an extraordinary works council meeting, the announcement of Lunch Garden’s filing for bankruptcy was made. 19 restaurants will close their doors, meaning dozens of people will be laid off. A shock for worker representatives.
If the announcement Monday morning by the management of Lunch Garden of a bankruptcy of the restaurant brand followed by a partial recovery confirmed the fears born for several days, even weeks, the union organizations are no less shocked by the turn of events.
“It’s dismay, stupefaction”summarized, at the end of the extraordinary works council, Stéphane Piron, federal secretary of Setca. For the workers concerned, some of whom have been active at Lunch Garden for decades, it’s as if life stopped, the union official lamented, looking defeated.
“There are a lot of emotions, there is a lot of anger, dismay, incomprehension, that’s for sure. Because we live in a society today where we allow companies to separate from workers for free, without assuming the social burden after financial initiatives And therefore, it is financial holding companies which manage companies. It is ICG which finally gives in, which goes bankrupt, and it is another financial holding company which takes over. I hope that there will not be the same aggressive attitude as the ICG in the past”he explained.
-“Workers who worked in January will not have their salary at the end of the month”
End-of-year bonuses and salaries for the month of January, despite management’s promises, will not be paid soon. “Today, the workers who worked in January will not have their January salary at the end of the month, and will not have their end-of-year bonuses which had been promised. This will be for the curatorship afterwards, and so it will be for the future.”further deplored Stéphane Piron.
The so-called procedure “silent bankruptcy“, which the management of Lunch Garden used to find a buyer, does not pass muster to the workers’ representatives either. “We are faced with a fait accompli. This completely puts the union organizations out of the game”denounced Sandra Antenucci, permanent secretary for the CSC Food and Services. A feeling of helplessness and injustice shared by Stéphane Piron: “We have not been able to put forward our arguments to try to reduce the number of layoffs”.
Early in the morning, the announcement of the bankruptcy filing was made during an extraordinary works council meeting. Management announced that a new shareholder, CIM Capital, would relaunch 42 restaurants out of the current 61. This will be done with half of the current staff, or 300 out of 600 (franchisees not included). There is still no certainty regarding independent restaurants.
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