A trade union has called on Danone to release more details on restructuring plans said to be on the horizon for the dairy and water giant’s operations in Europe.
The IUF – which represents trade unions across the food, agricultural and hospitality sectors – has called on Danone to provide more information on what the union says is a proposed ‘transformation plan’ for the Evian owner’s business in the region.
According to the IUF, Danone presented the plans to trade union representatives last week.
The company wants to “accelerate the technological revolution to make the business more fluid and more competitive, and to offer attractive, forward-looking career paths”, the IUF said.
The project would see an undisclosed number of jobs moved to four European service centres, two of which are located in Poland.
Unions fear the plans could lead to 450 jobs being lost across Danone’s operations in Europe.
Just Drinks has contacted Danone for further comment.
The IUF is calling on Danone to ensure that there are “no forced redundancies” as a result of the transfer of roles to the service centres.
The organisation also wants Danone to open talks to enable staff to find alternative employment within the company.
“We have heard references to Danone’s new ‘social pact’ but to date it has been only through a series of short statements,” IUF general secretary Sue Longley said.
“It is now time for Danone to spell out clearly what the content, objectives and time frame are for this social pact. Any pact requires the negotiation of an agreement between all parties and in Danone’s case, this includes the thousands of Danone employees and their trade unions.”
Danone recently announced a programme called Danskills that aims to spend €100m ($108m) up to 2030 training employees in AI and technology-focused roles.
The group claims that it is preparing to fill 2,500 positions in Europe that it “anticipates” it will need by 2027.
In 2023, Danone booked net sales of €27.6bn, an increase of 7% on a like-for-like basis.
The company saw operating income of €2bn, a 4.7% drop on 2022, while recurring operating income sat at €3.5bn, a 3.1% hike on the previous year.
Net income for the group declined 8.1% year-on-year at €881m.
