In mid-June, a post on the LinkedIn social network caused a small storm in the corporate world. Laurent de la Clergerie, CEO of the French leader in the sale of computer equipment LDLC, has just announced that the employees of his group, men and women, will benefit from a leave of twenty weeks after the birth of a child. As a reminder, the law grants ten weeks of postnatal leave to mothers and 25 days to fathers.
This is not the first time that the Lyon-based company has innovated in terms of social policy: at the start of 2022, it implemented the four-day, 32-hour week. An initiative of which Laurent de la Clergerie is very proud and particularly satisfied: “I would not go back, he says. On the contrary, I regret not having done so sooner. We gain in efficiency: when employees are at work, they are at work. They don’t have their minds elsewhere, because they have a day to take care of other things. »
To those who accuse him of marketing with these ads, of looking for a bang, he replies: “We’re not outbidding it. The day I have no further progress to make, I will not seek to announce anything else for the sake of announcing it. “And to recall that he wanted to set up postnatal leave in 2022. “It has finally been effective since June 1. “As for the cost…”We’ll see next year”, he sweeps, serenely: “It won’t cost more than 3 or 5% of the payroll, we can cash it. »
Concretely, mothers must ask for these twenty weeks within six months of the birth of their child, all at once. Fathers will be able to take this leave at the latest in the year following the birth, and will be able to split it up to three periods of at least four weeks.
If Laurent de la Clergerie can materialize his ideas for social progress, it is because “the shareholders of this box are my sister, my brother and me, he says. We do not have to satisfy other shareholders as in large groups. Dividends should not be paid. So if we want to do something, we do it. And to add that they do not want “a thoroughly capitalist vision”.
The CEO is even considering a new step forward for 2024. However, it will not be menstrual leave, announced for example by Carrefour or the city of Saint-Ouen. “In the idea, why not. But I have a problem with that: it’s medical secrecy. This means that we will know why the person is taking leave. It can have the opposite effect, and women are embarrassed and not take them. »
Proud to say that he is close to his employees and to offer human management, Laurent de la Clergerie even received the occupational safety medal from the National Institute for Research and Safety in recognition of the innovations and new machines installed on its new Saint-Quentin-Fallavier platform.
However, on the employee side, it’s a different story. Moving to the new site and working on these machines was even considered violent by some. Myriam Letondot, elected CSE and CGT union representative and Éric Gazque, elected CSE, confide: “The move was very heavy for us. The management did not take it into account, did not react. “In Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, we switched to automated machines, the GEEKs [already implemented in particular at Decathlon, editor’s note]. Employees have evolved, because they worked to death, like dogs… But if we had the right people in the right place, we wouldn’t have needed to work like that, “regrets the union representative. According to the pair, the employees would not be sufficiently trained in the new machines, and the management problems would follow.
The atmosphere at the factory becomes deleterious. An employee would cause much of the tension. “Management barely yelled at him. Whereas a few years ago they fired a guy who hadn’t done that much and had cancer. »
Fifteen employees sent a letter to management. Who remained a dead letter. “We tend to give up a bit. It’s sad, because it’s in a box that has so much more,” breathes Myriam. And his colleague added: “It’s a shame that we are in a company that does so many things so well and that the employees do not want to stay. »
Because, according to the elected CSE: “What Laurent says in the press is the truth. He does it. And as long as he continues to do these positive things for employees, I will support him. I just wish he would listen to his employees more…”
