Dont Nod Entertainment’s top management, led by Oskar Guilbert and Julie Chalmette, initiated a redundancy plan on October 16. Presented as necessary to save the company, the aim is in fact to cut 69 jobs in order to make their employees pay for their own crass ineptitude.

In so doing, management has launched the negotiation of a method agreement, which will determine the terms of negotiation for the content of the plan itself.

Management hinders negotiations before they’ve even begun

The agreement proposed by management, which will be negotiated shortly, must be described for what it is: a rag.

• Time limits have been reduced to the bare legal minimum, so as not to allow the STJV, the CSE and the mandated experts to do their work properly. The timetable is so slapdash that the experts are expected to deliver their opinion even before the agreement with the STJV has been concluded, i.e. an opinion that is incomplete and constrained by time – the deadline set by management falling on the day after the Christmas holidays, which is unrealistic and irresponsible.
• The elected members of the CSE and the union delegation negotiating the PSE only have a very small number of hours of delegation, which are restricted as far as possible.
• Management refuses in advance to let the CSE call for additional meetings, granting itself the unilateral choice of if and when to hold them.
• No union communication channels are provided, and management confines us to the existing ones, i.e. an on site notice board and an intranet page buried by the tool’s referencing. It is impossible to inform almost 300 employees, 80% of whom work from home, with these derisory means.

What’s more, management is asking us to sign their amateur work starting this Monday, in order to expedite the PSE and hamper the work of the STJV and the CSE elected representatives. Their goal is to carry out their plan as brutally and quickly as possible, by trampling on all checks and balances, to fit in with their games release schedules.

Management must listen to employee representatives

It goes without saying that the STJV will use every means at its disposal to oppose this massive social slaughter, the likes of which has never been seen before in our industry. Behind these 69 jobs is yet another inept reorganization (the 4th in two years), which threatens all Don’t Nod workers in the long run.

We therefore demand that management rethink its position as soon as possible, in particular by including the following provisions in the method agreement:

• That the additional delegation hours be left to the good use of the CSE’s elected representatives, in accordance with the practice described in its internal regulations and which has been respected since it came into effect.
• For all meetings dealing with the PSE (R1, R2, R3 and R4; extraordinary CSSCT meetings; and any additional meetings):
  • that elected representatives and substitutes be excused from their productive work for the two days preceding each meeting, without this being deducted from their delegation hours, so that they can confer with the designated expert and prepare the PSE meetings collegially;
  • that elected representatives have the right to convene an additional meeting, following a vote by the CSE;
  • that the experts, mandated by the CSE and the union, can take part in each of these meetings to fully assist the staff representation bodies;
  • that the deadline for submitting expert reports be extended to coincide with the vote on the majority agreement and the delivery of the CSE’s opinion.
• For the union delegation, a total of 12 hours of delegation per meeting, distributed and used in the same way as provided for in the method agreement on the NAO 2024.
• That negotiation meetings be spaced out by a minimum of 48 hours, to allow the union delegation to pursue its obligation of democratic consultation of the section.
• That, as for the NAOs, the union section be given a discussion channel dedicated to the redundancy plan, to keep employees informed of the progress of negotiations.

All these demands are more than legitimate, and are merely intended to maintain a semblance of social dialogue. We urge management to return to serious terms, respectful of democracy and social dialogue, and to immediately stop twisting the arm of elected representatives already exhausted by years of contempt.

As a result, we are calling on Don’t Nod workers to mobilize on Monday October 28 with a walkout from 4 to 6 p.m., which will be an opportunity for Oskar Guilbert and company management to reflect on their personal responsibilities in the present situation, during the general “bi-monthly exchange space” meeting which we will not be attending.

Today, on October 16, Don’t Nod presented its plan to reduce its headcount, which could go as far as eliminating 69 permanent contract jobs (29% of the Paris studio workforce). This announcement is the climax of a series of catastrophic decisions, denounced for a long time by workers’ representatives.

A layoff plan thrown at us with a sweep of the hand

On September 30, in front of the whole Paris studio, CEO Oskar Guilbert mentioned a future announcement about the company, which had to be presented to workers’ representatives before the rest of the company. Just one week after a financial communication by the company relating huge financial losses, this announcement stoked the fears about the economic situation of the studio, and therefore about jobs.

Today’s meeting, after 2 weeks of waiting in anguish, was revealed as the starting point of a layoff plan (« plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi » or jobs saving plan as it is officially called). Workers’ representatives were not told in advance about the meeting’s topic, and were not provided with any documents and information before the it, which goes against the law.

We fear the amateurism already displayed in following the process will jeopardize its implementation, and worsen the distress of our colleagues.

A concerted and organised denial

Workers’ representatives at Don’t Nod have been raising alarms for more than a year about the company’s economic situation, which is the reason cited to justify the layoffs. Last summer, the head of HR Matthieu Hoffmann was still claiming in front of representatives’ that layoffs were unimaginable. Yet 3 months later this is what we end up with. Mr Hoffmann conveniently left the company in the meantime.

Alarm bells have been ringing for months : the termination of the Jusant production line and the dispersion of its team on other projects, the « undefinite pause » imposed on unannounced projects, the increasing amount of workers, including executives, leaving the company, the commercial failure of the last games…

All of these had been questioned in workers’ representatives’ notices about the company’s situation, which had been left unanswered for many months. What’s left to say about a company living on public subsidies, yet not even complying with the most basic processes dictated by law ?

Management is hiding being « the state of the economy » and « a very competitive market » as excuses for its failures, without ever questioning its inconsistent decisions, which have been harmful to the studio and its workers.

Concerns raised in our last statement have been ignored

In our statement on February 7, we were denouncing the permanent reorganisation at the company, which left whole teams behind. Eight months later, this reorganisation has been forsakend and is revealed as useless, exactly as we predicted.

We were also denouncing the absence of social dialogue, the increasing consequences on workers’ health, the obstacles to workers’ representatives exercing their mandate, or the chaotic productions. Nothing has changed, except for the addition of planned layoffs.

The Don’t Nod union section, as well the whole of the STJV, cannot tolerate the company rejecting the responsibilities of its own failures on its workers. We warned them long ago, but they ignored us and accused us of being too agressive to speak with. With this layoffs plan, they are creating an atmosphere of extreme violece. We are calling on all workers at Don’t Nod to mobilise to save their jobs and working conditions.

Faced with executives who have decided to mock their workers, a social movement like the one currently happening at Ubisoft is necessary. It is up to us to establish the necessary balance of power to save our jobs. We will not pay for our bosses’ mistakes.