Richemont in talks on job cuts
RICHEMONT signalled it was willing to reduce a job-cut plan by about 20 percent, according to worker representatives who said they wanted more concessions from the Swiss luxury-goods maker as they protested near the headquarters of Piaget and Vacheron Constantin.
Richemont offered to reduce the number of jobs it planned to eliminate at the Swiss watchmakers to about 170 from 210, Alessandro Pelizzari, a representative of the Unia labour union said in an interview yesterday, the original deadline for an agreement.
The company declined to comment on the figure and said it would extend discussions for several days to improve the conditions in the plan.
Peanuts
“They put peanuts on the table, and we think they can do better,” Pelizzari said.
The union was insisting that Richemont resort to reduced working hours instead of outright job cuts, he added.
After Switzerland produced more than 500 million timepieces to feed booming demand over the past two decades, watchmakers were now in retreat.
Swiss watch exports had the biggest monthly drop in seven years in October, with plunging demand in almost every major market.
In response, Richemont’s chairman, Johann Rupert has overhauled senior management, abolishing the chief executive position and naming new executives to lead watchmaking and operations.
Piaget and Vacheron Constantin employees rejected Richemont’s plan earlier this week, with 65percent of votes against, according to a statement from the company.
Turnout was 32 percent of a combined workforce of 1352 people.
Talks with the Unia and Syna unions would center on improving measures to help employees who were most impacted in terms of finding jobs, said Serge Hauert, a human resource director at Richemont, in an e-mailed statement.
Shares of Richemont traded 0.3 percent lower at Sf66.50 (R898) at 1:34pm in Zurich.
They have dropped 12 percent in the past year. By the close in Johannesburg, the shares were 2.05percent lower at R89.63.
“This is a historic time for us in watchmaking, it’s the first time we’re going to the streets,” said Antonio Di Marino, a mechanic who joined more than 100 workers to protest in Plan-les-Ouates, a town near Geneva. “We’re all scared. We know that whole industry isn’t going well, so where would we go?” – Bloomberg