A few hundred employees of the chain of sports articles Decathlon observed work stoppages Friday and Saturday throughout France at the call of the CFDT to request better wages and working conditions, the union told AFP
According to Sébastien Chauvin, CFDT union representative, more than 500 employees responded to the call to strike on Friday and Saturday, for work stoppages of a few hours or a day, in a hundred stores in France. However, the movement did not lead to a store closure.
The group has approximately 20,000 employees in France, 12,000 of which work in stores, according to Mr. Chauvin.
“We claim wages that correspond to our responsibilities and our investment, a better annual evaluation system and more workforce on permanent contracts,” he said, adding that the movement was also supported by the CGT.
For its part, the management told AFP that “the REST brand (has) particularly attentive to the questions and claims expressed. Décathlon continues a direct and regular dialogue with its teams”.
Management was not able on Saturday to assess the number of strikers.
In Paris, a dozen employees of Syndée Décathlon at the CFDT had planned to meet on Saturday afternoon in front of the Madeleine Place store but a hailstorm disrupted the rally, which finally took place in the aisles of the store.
They denounced the working conditions in this store, degraded according to them by the heavy work carried out for several months in the building which houses it.
“This store is the one that makes the group’s largest turnover worldwide, 60 million euros. Management did not want to close it during the work,” regrets Sébastien Chauvin.
The CFDT, the third union organization within the group but first among employees, had already appealed to the strike in December to claim salary increases.
However, strikes remain quite rare in this chain which belongs to the Mulliez group (Auchan, Boulanger, Leroy Merlin).
