“When you have a social conflict, you have to say why. We have paid all the salaries, said Denis Ferre, counsel for the company Laser Propreté, on Monday. The purpose of this hearing is to ensure that employees who wish to work can do so and that the material is released. Laser Propreté lodged a complaint and challenged the strike started on August 1 on Monday before the Marseilles court.
The cleaning company accuses the strikers at Saint-Charles station, where 16 million passengers pass through a year, of preventing certain other cleaning employees from returning to work, supported by a bailiff’s report.
“They are just asking for payment of their due”
The argument was refuted by the employees’ lawyer, Me Marylou Diamantara. Relying on her own bailiff’s report, she affirms “that after seven days of strike, a person wanted to return to work but being alone, she did not have the means to work in this station which does not clean itself with simple brooms but with heavy equipment, which is moreover insufficient”. “It is a lawful, known and claimed strike, which does not hinder anyone”, she added, pointing out conversely “the suffering experienced” by some who, for lack of the means provided, ” are obliged to buy rubbish bags themselves”: “They are just asking for payment of their due”.
At the end of the hearing, around fifty people – strikers, LFI activists and Solidaires trade unionists – greeted the lawyer with “hoorays” in front of the court. “No matter the decision, we will continue (our strike). We are more determined than ever to assert our rights, ”exclaimed Kamel Djeffel, national secretary of the CAT Cleaning union, over the megaphone.
“We are always open to discussion”
Since August 1, several Laser Propreté employees, first those responsible for cleaning the Saint-Charles station, then their colleagues from the Marseille metro, have been on strike. Many say they have not received their full wages in recent months, including overtime for Sunday work and public holidays or various bonuses.
The strike continues after the failure of various negotiation meetings and the waste has started to pile up again. “We are always open to discussion,” said Kamel Djeffel. After more than an hour of hearing, the decision was reserved for Friday.