Job losses feared in France

PSA Peugeot Citroen already announced in November 6,000  job cuts in Europe for 2012, including 4,000 in France and unions expect the downsizing to continue. In France the redunandcies could rise to between 8-10,000 a union official told Bloomberg according to Le Figaro.

PSA declined to comment on "rumours" However.Philippe Varin, the chief executive of PSA, had said  to the unions in a committee meeting last week that the savings of 1 billion euros announced in February would not be sufficient in the face of declining sales.In the first six months of the year, sales of PSA fell from 21.6% in France, according to data from the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA). Closures of several plants are feared.

PSA and General Motors have signed a working agreement which calls for the rationalisation of their operations. General Motors has already announced the closure of Opel in Bochum. The French government has asked PSA to clarify its intentions and is working on an action plan for the French auto manufacturing industry .

Bouygues Telecom and SFR are  also preparing cuts that will result in the removal of hundreds of jobs Le Parisien reports. Bouygues Telecom  will present its plans on Tuesday and SFR in November. The two operators are facing a  deteriorating financial situationb due to the arrival on the market of  Free Mobile in January, and the migration of hundreds of thousands of subscribers to the newcomer.

The  CEO of Bouygues Telecom, whose revenues could fall by 15-20% according to the business newspaper "Les Echoes", must present a plan at the Central Works Council to reduce costs of 300 million euros announced in March. This could lead to voluntary redundancies. Several hundred employees would be affected.

SFR, which could loose between 500 and 1,000 jobs, and a  total of 10,000, which could be removed, according to Le Monde. There would be no compulsory redundancies, but a voluntary redundancy scheme and the non-renewal of temporary contracts. "A reorganization plan will be launched in November, together with social partners will be presented with a voluntary separation plan," said a spokesman for the subsidiary of Vivendi, which did not quantify these plans,at the  Central Works Council. The "transformation plan" should provide "good starting conditions," said a source close to the case.

The operators explain and justify their restrictions by the arrival on the market  of Free Mobile  which they accuse of having destabilizedthe market and be responsible for the destruction of jobs in France. With over 2.6 million subscribers today, and capturing more than two thirds of the other operators,  Free has made a sustantial and visible impact.

An impact study of the arrival of Free Mobile conducted by Bruno Deffains, a professor at the Sorbonne and director of research center in economics law , believes it will lead to a net destruction of 55,000 jobs in two years.

Olivier Roussat, CEO of Bouygues Telecom, calls  Free Mobile the "firefighter arsonist"  and adds "The French have a thing for Robin Hood, it is also necessary that they do not set fire to the forest," he wrote on July 2 in "Les Echos".