Employment Minister Monica De Coninck has just approved the content of the social chapter of the heavy restructuring announced by the management of Caterpillar Gosselies (Charleroi) on February 28, 2013. Following the mass layoff procedure, the social impact was limited as much as possible with more than 90 percent of job cuts going under the Company Supplement Unemployment system (chômage avec complément d’entreprise, RCCE). Besides, 125 workers are encouraged to leave the company with a seniority-based bonus. All draft agreements need to be translated into collective agreements that will conclude the mass layoff procedure started last February.
Overview of one year of negotiations. On February 28, 2013, the management of Caterpillar Gosselies announced, at an extraordinary WC meeting, that it intended to cut 1,400 jobs to renew with long-term competitiveness. In its explanations to justify this heavy restructuring, the management of the construction and mining equipment manufacturer mostly referred to increased competition from Asian producers and limited growth prospects in European, combined with structures that are too expensive (the group’s most expensive plant in the world, for 97 percent of machines sold outside of Belgium), even though the American giant saw its net margin increase by 15 percent in one year (up to $5.7 billion).
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