The strikes were observed on Tuesday by employees of 26 Galeries Lafayette stores, who denounced a lack of transparency about the financial situation of their parent company owned by businessman Michel Ohayon, several of whose brands are in great difficulty.
The representatives of the staff of Hermione Retail, a company that brings together the Galeries Lafayette that Michel Ohayon bought in 2018 and 2021, already exercised their right to alert in December to obtain information about their situation. Other brands owned by Michel Ohayon through Hermione People & Brands (HPB) – Go Sport, Gap France – are currently in crisis, while Camaieu, a former northern flagship, was abruptly liquidated in September 2022.
The CFDT, the first union within the Hermione Retail group, had called its employees to strike on Tuesday.
In Bayonne, as in most of the twenty stores that are part of Hermione Retail, the strike call was followed at midday by more than twenty employees, out of the 60 in the establishment.
“We no longer receive the merchandise”
Among them, Muriel Scanzi, central union representative of the group in the CFDT and employee in Bayonne, who points to “concerns” still present after the right to alert and, in particular, informs AFP of “investments promised but never made”.
Two other employees, ages 42 and 25 who wish to remain anonymous, say they expect “transparency.” “There may be a failure, with Camaieu, but then the failures followed with Go Sport, with Gap,” said the forty-year-old. “Today everything is blurry for us and we are afraid of losing our job, we don’t know if the store will close, although it is going very well”, adds the youngest.
For her part, HPB told AFP on Tuesday that “no social plan or store closures are planned at Hermione Retail,” adding that “the company is healthy, driven by a marketing strategy that has proven its relevance with a billing for 2022″. increase of +4.1%” and for January 2023 an increase in turnover “of +9.8% compared to January 2022”.
“Regarding the right of alert exercised by employees, Jonathan Szejner, president of Hermione People and Brands, met yesterday with the designated experts who were visibly reassured at the end of the interview. The additional documents requested are sent to them within the same day, said the group’s spokesman.
The same source later clarified that 10% of Hermione Retail employees left work, with a move “tracked very unevenly depending on the site”.
Source: BFM TV
