a company condemned because it tried to dissuade its employees from striking

The case goes back to the strikes against the so-called El Khomry labor law, under the Valls government of François Hollande, but the judgment has just been handed down by the Chambéry court and is of burning topicality. The Vencorex company, in Pont-de-Claix, in Isère, whose 400 employees manufacture chemical products, is facing a strike. The CGT calls to stop the work. A strike call that will not be to the liking of management since, in the process, the secretary of the CGT receives a letter on the company’s letterhead, and co-signed by the executives of the management committee.

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A letter that will be brought to the attention of all employees since it will be posted on the company’s intranet. She explains that the strike will be “without effect on the cause it claims to defend“. She underlines the consequences that the social movement will have, with “further losses in production and sales”. Vencorex wants to become a world leader and “every ton lost is a ton recovered by our competitors“, says the letter, taken up by the AEF news agency.

This pushes the CGT to take legal action to have a “crime of obstruction” recognized. The judges will give him reason. The management thought “shocked” by the call to strike. The judges will consider that the term “shocked” and the fact that she considers that “the strike will have no effect on the cause to be defended“are likely to directly discredit the CGT union by arguing that its action would have no legitimacy and would be useless, underlines the site ActuEL-HR.

However, it is not for a company to give a subjective opinion on the usefulness of a union organization. The judges therefore condemned the company, saying in addition that the letter was intended to dissuade employees from exercising their constitutional right to strike in the future. The court awarded 2,500 euros in damages to the CGT plus 2,500 euros for legal costs.