discomfort at Akka Technologies, the CGT calls on a renowned lawyer
A meeting was organized between a renowned lawyer and employees of the Akka group, on the Blagnac site on October 11 at the initiative of the CGT. According to the union, mobility clauses in employee contracts, the generators of suffering at work, may not be regular.
Feeling of unease at Akka Technologies. This October 11, 2022 around noon, a dozen employees, not counting the trade unionists, came to listen to Me Fiodor Rilov in front of their company in Blagnac. “Fear of being identified as pro-union perhaps“, confides one of them.
In a context of workforce reduction (2,800 employees before the Covid against 1,800 today), the discussion with the lawyer specializing in the defense of employees of large groups (Camaieu, Goodyear, Continental…) is a first meeting.
At the invitation of the CGT, he came to explain to them that the mobility clauses they signed with their contract might not be regular. The engineering and technology consulting group is present in a dozen countries and the possibility of having distant mobility imposed on it is real.
According to the union, the mobility clauses are the source of suffering for many employees of the company. “An external audit reports 50% of employees in a situation of suffering at work” Explain Franck Laborderie of the CGT Akka. “And among these 50%, two thirds are in extreme pain.” Some employees would be on sick leave following burn-out, others would have suicidal desires.
If they do not all feel concerned by this suffering at work, the employees with whom we spoke confirm that it exists among many of their colleagues, “especially the older ones“, we blow one of them.
However, according to the CGT, these clauses may be “illegal” in certain contracts. Franck Laborderie presents an example that came to him. It says: “as part of his duties which may require constant intervention with the company’s customers or frequent travel, the employee may be required, at the company’s simple request, to carry out missions on variable demand in France and or abroad . Mission that he already accepts without taking advantage of a modification of his employment contract“.
Still according to the trade unionist, the clauses are not enough”framed“so that they are legal. Or, “for them to be valid, the clauses must respect a certain number of criteria“, Rilov explains to me. “They are put in place by law to prevent employees from being exposed to the discretionary power of the employer..”
For the lawyer, the next step will consist in receiving the contracts of the employees who will want it to study their legality. “If I find that mobility clauses at Akka are systematically recorded in breach of the rules surrounding mobility clauses, I will draw the consequences.“
Still according to the CGT, these clauses are powerful tools that allow management to slim down its workforce. When the activity is not at the rendezvous, “immediately, it attacks employees who do not make a turnover, ie those who are between two missions with us. We will then give them a mission in another region.“
In case of refusal, the employee risks dismissal. “We had the case of a mother, whose child is sick, who was forced to go on a mission in Paris“, argues the trade unionist.
The next step for Me Fiodor Rilov: recall the employees of the group’s headquarters on October 27 in Paris.