in Seine-et-Marne, a voluntary departure plan at the But and Conforama headquarters

A new plan affects employees in Seine-et-Marne. After the employees of the Cora head office, in Croissy-Beaubourg, it is the employees of the head offices of But, in Émerainville, and Conforama, in Lognes, who are impacted by a social plan.

In total, seventy-four positions are affected by a voluntary departure plan. Explanations.

Pooling of services

The announcement fell on Tuesday January 14, 2025. While the Conforama furniture store chain was acquired by But in 2020the two brands have been operating since a merger. It is in this context that it was announced to employees that a voluntary departure plan was going to be implemented within the head offices of two companiesa few kilometers apart. “This corresponds to mutualisations of services”, we are told from But.

Concretely, these are positions that exist at both head offices who are affected. So, 56 positions are concerned on the Conforama side, when eighteen are at But. We would count, in total, just over 1,100 employees on the two sites.

“We are not at peace”

On the staff side, the announcement caused a reaction. Greatly. “We knew it was in the pipeline for some time, but we officially learned about it on Tuesday. We expected worse, but we're not going to shout “victory” too early because nothing reassures us for the future. We are not serene », recalls Abdelaziz Boucherit, central CGT union delegate at Conforama.

For him, since January 2024, already, very many departures took place at Conforama, for different reasons, but “we still had a significant downsizing,” he believes.

In my opinion, in the long term, we will have a single head office for both companies.

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Furthermore, he deplores the “unclear” strategic orientations for Conforama, vis-à-vis But. “If it stays like this, there is a risk of cannibalism “. A situation which, according to him, would weigh on the well-being at work of employees. “We have colleagues who come to work with a lump in their stomach, they don’t know what the next day will bring,” he assures.

On the CGT But side, the feeling is more or less the same. “We feel incomprehension and the anger. We do not share this need to eliminate eighteen positions,” reacts Clément GaboritCGT national delegate But.

Although he claims not to have been surprised when this plan was announced, since he “had been asking himself questions since the group was set up”, he still notes a “ savings strategy at the expense of employees “. For him, this pooling could even present risks for employees continuing their activity within the group. So he observes a risk of work overloadbut also the breakdown of a work collective, and a loss of bearings. “We are going to be vigilant what comes next,” he assures.

For his part, Nicolas Delaunay, the mayor of Lognes, said, in a publication Facebook, very attentive to developments of the situation.

News consultation meetings should begin in the coming days.

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