France : an agreement on the transformation of technical engineering and tertiary skills at Renault, which also provides for 2,500 voluntary departures

With more than 50% trade union representation, the signature of the CFE-CGC, CFDT and FO trade unions validates Renault’s agreement on workforce reduction and skills transformation in the automaker’s support and engineering functions. The agreement comes at a particularly challenging time in the automotive industry, and one which has been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 health crisis. In it are provisions both for implementing long-term short-time working arrangements that can be used as "a lever for transforming professions", and for a voluntary redundancy plan targeting 2,500 employees in 2021 (from a total 15,000 concerned). The agreement also includes a training plan aimed at accelerating the transformation process towards electrification, efforts to foster local social dialogue within the business lines, and to sructure a psychosocial risk prevention approach, which is all the more important in a transformation environment.