“You read correctly, we have been on fixed-term contracts for 36 years for Arielle, and 47 years for Bertrand…”, write the two leading hosts of the show “Numbers and letters” alongside Laurent Laurent Romejko, in a press release. Bertrand Renard and Arielle Boulin-Prat are leaving the game show they hosted for 47 and 36 years, while France Télévisions decided to shift the program from the week to the weekends. A departure “forced and compelled” by the management of France Télévisions, they denounce, while according to them she was asking a decrease “around 60%” of their salary, and refused them a CDI.
For them, “The account is not right” : ousted after decades of collaboration, the two historical figures of the game show “Numbers and letters” have created controversy by revealing the conditions of their departure and highlighting the precariousness in the audiovisual sector.
Bertrand Renard and Arielle Boulin-Prat, the Mr figures and the Mrs letters of the game, for 47 years and 36 years respectively, denounced Monday the character “forced and compelled” of their departure, in response to “angelic utterances” of a leader of France Télévisions. “We did not agree and we regret it”explained Friday to the Parisian the director of the unit of games, varieties and entertainment of the public group, Alexandra Redde-Amiel.
The reality is “less candy pink”, they assure. France Televisions “demanded a drop in our salary of around 60% and refused to grant us the CDI that we had the audacity to claim”are indignant the two referees in a press release. “You read correctly, we have been on fixed-term contracts for 36 years for Arielle, and 47 years for Bertrand…”, continues the duo, evoking a regularization “flatly refused”. Their lawyer explains to AFP that the situation has what to justify too “very quickly” an industrial tribunal procedure unless the two parties reach an agreement “in extremis”.
Presidential candidate Fabien Roussel supports them
Something to shock a number of commentators on social networks, like the former communist presidential candidate Fabien Roussel, who brought them his “full support”. “Amazing! And they are accused of having asked for a CDI…”he tweeted.
France Télévisions claims to have respected labor law
“The Recourse” so-called customary fixed-term contracts “is authorized and practiced by the entire profession”recalls for its part France Télévisions in a press release sent Tuesday to AFP, because “the renewal of a program in a schedule is re-examined each year”.
“Madame Boulin-Prat and Mr. Renard worked approximately 35 to 40 days a year, grouped into 6 to 8 sessions. They therefore did not collaborate under the conditions of a full-time permanent contract”, continues the public group. And an “increase” of their cachet was offered to them for “compensate for a significant part of the drop in the number of emissions”.