Job cuts at the largest private employer in Haute-Loire

Valéo management announced to employees 694 forced departures and 174 voluntary departures, according to a group spokesperson. The sites of La Suze-sur-Sarthe (Sarthe) and La Verrière (Yvelines) will be closed. The one in L'Isle-d'Abeau (Isère) will not close, but will reduce its workforce: 70 employees instead of 308 until now.

The Sainte-Florine site, which has nearly 600 employees, making Valéo the largest private employer in the department, is also affected, but, for the moment, the number of positions targeted is not known.

More than 1,200 job cuts?

According to the Force Ouvrière (FO) union, the total would, in fact, be 1,282 job cuts, out of 13,500 employees in France, if the employees refuse their transfer and if we also take into account the vacant positions eliminated.
This announcement is “a project” for which “the timetable and modalities will be discussed subsequently,” said the group’s spokesperson. “We worked to have a plan that protects production operators”, who are not affected by forced departures, he underlined. “It’s a dramatic announcement,” responded Bertrand Bellanger, from FO. Reducing costs may be necessary, but sacrificing jobs and weakening the future of the sector in France is a strategic error.”

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The Valéo group had already announced in January that it was considering cutting 1,150 positions worldwide, including 235 in France, mainly in management positions, out of 109,900 employees.

Specializing in electronic and lighting systems, the equipment manufacturer is also suffering from slipping electrification, with “a lot of postponements of new production launches among manufacturers”, explained its general director Christophe Périllat at the end of October.

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With AFP