Compagnie des Machines Bull SA’s research and development centre at Echirolles, near Grenoble, is looking at the possibility of holding a referendum aimed at getting its staff to agree to a temporary reduction in their salaries instead of laying off 54 workers, reported La Tribune-Defosses: Rather than putting people again on the street, we would like to work on our salary mass, which is costly, said Francois Fernex, head of the centre; one of the ideas is to eliminate the usual payment of a 13th month; both the CFDT union and Bull personnel director Herve Hannebicque have approved the idea, although the union imposed one condition, that voluntary leave measures be taken to achieve the necessary job cuts and that if those measures have not achieved the necessary number by May 9, then a referendum will be held; Bull management reports that the job cuts plan proposed by former chief executive Bernard Pache is well under way – of 1,508 cuts in France, 1,000 have already been achieved, it noted.
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