Castorama admits 鈥榗lumsy鈥� to ask French to train Poles
Home DIY and garden company Castorama has been forced to backtrack after admitting it was 鈥渃lumsy鈥� to ask soon-to-be-made-redundant French staff to train their Polish replacements.
A spokesperson for British parent company Kingfisher admitted the 鈥渃lumsiness鈥� of the incident this week, after it emerged that French staff, who knew they were due to be made redundant and replaced, were asked to train their Polish successors to do their jobs.
The move was condemned as 鈥渃ynical鈥� by Jean-Paul Gathier, delegate representative for workers鈥� union Force Ouvri猫re, FO.
He added: 鈥淚t is even worse, because management even told [the French workers] that they were 鈥榗ounting on them鈥� to be 鈥榩rofessional 鈥榯o the end鈥�. They were shocked. Castorama has now had to retreat due to our reaction.鈥�
After admitting its error, that its new Polish employees will continue to receive training in French accounting, but no current French employees will be required to help.
A statement from Olivier Lurson, director of human resources at Kingfisher, said in a press release to the Agence France-Presse: 鈥淲e have taken into account employees鈥� feelings. No staff members affected by the job losses will be in charge of this training.鈥�
The group is set to make 409 French administrative staff members redundant this year.
Many of the jobs are expected to be replaced with workers in Poland.
The change in staff is not a total surprise for the company, whose French HQ is in Templemars (Nord).
Late last year, Kingfisher - which also runs Brico D茅p么t, and the brands Screwfix and B&Q in the UK - announced it was moving many of its operations to the eastern European country, in a bid to cut costs and 鈥渞estore its competitiveness鈥�.
As well as just over 100 Castorama stores in France, the company also has 20 stores in Russia, and 50 in Poland.
