At the end of the first works council since the transfer of the company to Marc Dufour, many problems remain concerning the implementation of the restructuring plan.
The restructuring of Air Littoral was confirmed yesterday in Montpellier at the end of the first meeting of the works council since the transfer of the company to the former CEO, Marc Dufour. The lay-off of 280 up to 300 jobs will concern about one hundred positions on the ground, eighty pilots and eighty stewards and stewardess, which represents in total 263 full-time jobs”, asserted the representatives of the works council.
This restructuring plan was presented by Marc Rochet, president of the board of directors at Air Littoral. The latter announced that redundancies will be conducted with a redeployment, retirements and anticipated retirements. However, according to the central labour body, no guarantee was provided concerning the redeployments. During this meeting, it was also announced the reduction of activities by 25%, the withdrawal of airlines making deficits (including the Paris-Orly station). However, the stations of Montpellier, head office of the company and Nice will remain.
In addition to this restructuring plan, another problem remain : unions, which were by-passed by the assembly of employees in the decision of the company’s transfer, reckon that the opinions concerning the restructuring plan were not all considered. Thus they still aim at submitting for a legal settlement to the commercial court of Montpellier for “hindrance crime”. They accuse Marc Rochet for having decided of the transfer without waiting for the opinion of the works council.
Thus problems still remain for Air Littoral. All the more that a candidate to the takeover, the American pension fund Wexford aims at developing flights within the Mediterranean area in Nice, creating his own company, Air Riviera (see article of Nice-Matin "Weford is ready to create an airline company in Nice"). It will be a competitor for Air Littoral’s hub of Nice.