Paris (Reuters) – The management of Ubisoft France is due to meet the CSEs and union representatives of its French entities on Wednesday in a context of strong social tension, operational difficulties and stock market fragility.
These meetings, which were announced by Ubisoft at the beginning of December, aim to “calm and strengthen” the dialogue with the company’s various social partners as part of a “social consultation”, after several strike movements in February and October 2024.
The unions denounce management’s decision to reduce teleworking, very widespread in the industry, within the group, the degraded conditions of social dialogue as well as the lack of information on the financial health and future of the company.
According to a union source, the agenda of the meeting defined by management, considered “fuzzy”, must concern “the architecture and modalities of social dialogue”, “the need for negotiation with a view to “an agreement on the right to organize” and “the 2025 social calendar of which the subject of hybrid work will be part”.
In mid-December, the Ubisoft Paris CSE voted to issue an economic alert right. This procedure governed by law allows the staff representation body to request explanations from the employer when facts have a worrying impact on the economic situation of the company.
In a press release published on January 15, the Union of Video Game Workers (STJV), the CFE-CGC and Solidaires Informatique stressed that the representatives were “extremely concerned about the health of the company”.
Ubisoft challenged this right of alert in court before the Bobigny court.
-The publisher of Rabbids has been going through significant difficulties since last year, after the poor reception of certain games, the postponement of the release of the new opus of “Assassin’s Creed” and several warnings on results, which caused the stock market price.
Since the start of the year, Ubisoft shares have lost 15.4% after having lost 43.1% in 2024 – its fourth annual decline since 2020.
At the beginning of January, the video game manufacturer postponed for the second time the release of the new opus of its flagship game “Assassin’s Creed” and lowered its financial objectives for the third quarter.
He reaffirmed that he was considering “various transformative strategic and capital options”.
The founding family of the Guillemot brothers, Ubisoft’s largest shareholder, has begun discussions to restructure Ubisoft with its second-largest shareholder, Chinese giant Tencent, and other investors.
(Written by Florence Loève, edited by Blandine Hénault)
