Carrefour sacks 2100 jobs, gives former CEO huge bonus

While more than 2000 jobs are cut as Carrefour closes 243 stores, former CEO Georges Plassat has received a bonus of almost a million euro because of his “good results”. The trade unions are not amused, Carrefour France has seen better days…

No worries after retirement

Plassat already need not worry after his retirement, as he was given a life long pension of 453.000 per year. However, “given the results the company achieved in 2017”, that yearly sum was raised to an annual 517.810 euro, says French newspaper Libération. Moreover, he has received an extra bonus of 900.000 euro for his good work in 2017 – in which he retired in July (pending approval of the general board of shareholders). 

Plassat was already taken care of very well during his time at the helm of Carrefour: he earned almost 16 million euro in his last year and 10 million euro the year before. All of this earned him the title of “best paid CEO in the CAC40”, the major French stock exchange list.

Bad timinig

The news coincided with a very different fate for his workforce, who saw 2100 jobs cut after Carrefour decided to cut 243 former Dia stores (already revamped into Contact, Contact Marché or City formats). Carrefour wanted to sell 273 of those stores, but only found an interested buyer for one in ten of them.

The trade unions are furious with Carrefour’s board and claim it has not done enough to find new owners for the stores, even though “400 parties were interested in taking over 200 of the stores”. The board meanwhile defended itself by saying it chose for the few parties that were serious and sustainable. The closure of the 243 stores is still pending approval of the French antitrust office, but the stores may close as soon as 1 July.