La Rochelle: the food allowance, another point of contention at Semat

57 employees are demanding payment of the compensation they claim should have been paid between 2020 and 2023.

Nearly three weeks after a walkout following problems affecting pay slips, Semat experienced a new social episode on Wednesday, July 2: a meeting at the labor court conciliation office, prior to a hearing to discuss the non-payment of the food allowance between 2020 and 2023. Nearly fifty employees of the collection and cleaning equipment company located in La Rochelle, in the Port-Neuf district, had made the trip.

For the CGT, the compensation should have been imposed with the introduction, in 2020, of continuous working days in order to limit contact, following the coronavirus crisis.

A first wave of employees protested and obtained, through the courts, their payment for part of the period. They remain mobilized to obtain payment for the missing year. They were joined by 34 other colleagues. In total, the case brings together 57 plaintiffs.

Depending on the case, the loss of earnings varies from 800 to 2,300 euros: "Purchasing power has been diverted. In these times, the damage is great," denounces Johanne Maret, the CGT representative.