Rebelote for the SNCF. The Court of Cassation is looking a second time at an old file dating from the end of the 2000s and which concerns Itiremia, a subsidiary of the SNCF which has become Effia. This provided SNCF with services such as the reception and orientation of travelers (the “red vests”), assistance for people with reduced mobility and the transfer of luggage.
Problem: its employees do not have the status of railway workers and the benefits that flow from it: the Sud-Rail union had seized the labor inspectorate, denouncing an outsourcing of labour. The highest court of the judiciary therefore ordered a fourth trial on Wednesday for the SNCF and the Itiremia company in this case of subcontracting of station services.
Fine of several thousand euros
In 2015, the SNCF and its subsidiary were sentenced respectively to 150,000 and 40,000 euros in fines for illicit loan of labor and haggling, as well as 184,000 euros in damages. This sentence was reduced on appeal in 2017 to a fine of 90,000 euros for the SNCF, as well as 100 euros in damages per employee and the same amount for legal costs.
But this decision was canceled in August 2018 by the Court of Cassation, the defendants not having been informed at the hearing of their right to remain silent. The case therefore returned to the Court of Appeal of Paris. In its decision on May 20, 2021, the Court of Appeal acquitted the SNCF and its subsidiary of the offense of illicit loan of labour, but it condemned it for haggling to a fine of 30,000 euros and Effia a fine of 10,000 euros for the same reason.
The rail transport company lodged an appeal in cassation and, on Wednesday, the Court again canceled the decision, finding this time that it was insufficiently reasoned, according to a judgment. It sent the file back to the Paris Court of Appeal, otherwise composed, for a new trial of the two companies.