SoLocal Group: Additional provision concerning the possible consequences of court decisions regarding the 2013 Employment Sa...
February 11 2016 - 1:30AM
Business Wire
Regulatory News:
SoLocal Group (Paris:LOCAL) recorded in its 2015 consolidated
accounts the exceptional impact of the Court decisions invalidating
the approval by the French labor inspectorate (DIRECCTE) of the
Employment Safeguard Plan of PagesJaunes SA that had been approved
by a majority of representative trade unions late 2013.
This additional provision is -€35 million and is booked in the
2015 consolidated accounts. This amount reflects a prudent
assumption in a highly uncertain legal context, which has been
reinforced by recent contradictory decisions from the labor
tribunals. Many recourses have been initiated by Solocal Group to
dispute these decisions. Nevertheless, the current procedures and
the legal uncertainty created by this situation required the Group
to recognise an additional provision in its 2015 consolidated
accounts.
SoLocal Group notes that this ruling was purely based on a
matter of form concerning the signature of the trade union
representative rather than on the underlying content of the
Employment Safeguard Plan. The Group confirms that this ruling does
not result in cancelling the announced staff redundancies, nor does
it threaten the company’s new organisation.
Background of the dispute:
- An Employment Safeguard Plan was
implemented to allow the reorganisation of the company PagesJaunes
SA and manage the contract change from sales representative to
sales executive. Following several months of an intense social
dialogue within the company, the Plan was approved late 2013 by a
majority of representative trade unions.
- 280 sales representatives decided to
refuse these changes and left the company. This did not intend to
cut jobs, this is why they have been replaced by a greater number
of new sales positions. To cover the cost of these departures,
Solocal Group recorded in its consolidated accounts for 2013 and
2014 -€52 million of provisions.
- In 2014, SoLocal Group took note of the
decision of the administrative Court of appeal of Versailles to
cancel the validation by DIRECCTE of the Employment Safeguard Plan
implemented by its subsidiary PagesJaunes SA in 2013. This decision
was motivated by the finding that the mandate exercised for more
than 10 years by one of the representatives Union signatories of
the agreement had not been formally renewed by his trade union
organization the day after the elections of 2010. However,
according to the administrative Court of appeal, this non-renewal
questioned the character of the majority of the Employment
Safeguard Plan agreement, what the DIRRECTE should have checked
before making a decision. The Council of state confirmed this
interpretation in its decision of July 22, 2015.
About SoLocal Group
SoLocal Group, the European market leader in local online
communication, provides digital content, advertising solutions and
transactional services that simply connect people with local
businesses. The Group employs some 4,400 people (including nearly
1,900 local communication advisors) in France, Spain, Austria and
the United Kingdom and supports the online development of SMB and
major client accounts, mainly through its four flagship brands:
PagesJaunes, Mappy, Ooreka and A Vendre A Louer. Over the years,
SoLocal Group has earned the trust of some 530,000 Internet
clients. In 2015, SoLocal Group generated revenues of 873 million
euros, of which Internet business accounted for 73%, making it a
European market leader in terms of online advertising revenues.
SoLocal Group is listed on Euronext Paris (LOCAL). More information
may be obtained at www.solocalgroup.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Although
SoLocal Group feels that its estimates are based upon assumptions
which we believe to be reasonable, these forward-looking statements
are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause
actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in said
forward-looking statements. For a discussion of risks and
uncertainties which could cause actual results, financial
condition, performance or achievements of SoLocal Group to differ
from those contained in the forward-looking, please refer to the
"Risk factors" section of the "Document de Référence" filed with
the French financial markets authority (AMF) and available on the
Internet sites of the AMF (www.amf-france.org) and of SoLocal Group
(www.solocalgroup.com). Accounting data represented on an annual
basis in audited consolidated form and on an quarterly basis in
unaudited consolidated form.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160210006651/en/
SoLocal GroupPressDelphine Penalva, +33 (0)1 46 23 35
31dpenalva@solocal.comorEdwige Druon, +33 (0)1 46 23 37
56edruon@solocal.comorInvestorsElsa Cardarelli, +33 (0)1 46
23 40 92ecardarelli@solocal.com
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