Joint statement by the trade unions representing CAPGEMINI in France

All the trade unions note that Capgemini’s strategy in recent years is leading the company towards a social impasse in France.

Results have been particularly buoyant since the Covid crisis (including in France) and have been widely reported in the press by management. But this performance is being achieved at the expense of employees and at the expense of the continuity of know-how. Many business experts are leaving the company or are no longer as motivated by their activities as they once were. Although they were the driving force behind performance, they have been disappointed by the recurrent lack of pay rises. Some employees have even lost up to 15% of their purchasing power. Many employees were astonished to find that their variable pay had been reduced or even not paid at all.

There is a major risk that employees will lose their skills and their trust in the company, resulting in a diminution of customer service quality and a consequent loss of contracts.

More generally, the employees who have largely contributed to these good results do not understand these pay restrictions. Even though inflation remains high, the company is prospering on the backs of its employees.

This year’s all-too-fast round of collective wage bargaining was a failure (an assessment, incidentally, used by the Social Affairs department itself). There was no justification for the absence of pay measures that respected employees‘ commitment, leaving the negotiators in a state of total incomprehension. Is there something else behind this.

By favouring this type of management, the company has forgotten its main objective with regard to our customers: to produce quality services over the long term.

At the same time, all employees have seen a steady increase in the dividends paid to shareholders and in the income of Capgemini Group executives.

This incomprehensible HR policy is of concern to the trade unions in that it may foreshadow restructuring and/or a different organization of work, a project that has not been brought to the attention of staff representatives or shareholders.

Rather than investing in the Capgemini Group’s employees and in the quality of its services to ensure sustainable performance, management is opting for disconnected communication, leading the markets to believe that it will be able to continue to grow in a downturn. But at what cost to employees?

The interunion is calling for immediate regulation and review of its human resources management policy. We, the trade union organisations, are calling for a round table to be organized before the end of June 2024 with management and representatives of the main shareholders in order to put the company back on the road to equitable growth and a real sharing of value between shareholders and all employees.