Two -thirds of the permanent employees of this organization responsible for exporting French cinema and audiovisual have sent a letter to their leaders to denounce the deterioration of the social climate and the working methods.
by Nicole Vulser
Thirty-six permanent employees out of fifty-four, two thirds, signed a letter addressed on January 9 to Serge Toubiana, president of Unifrance, Hervé Michel, Vice-President, and Daniela Elstner, Managing Director of the ‘Association responsible for exporting French cinema and audiovisual, to alert them again to the discomfort within the team. For signatories, the dismissal of one of their colleagues in charge of production for eighteen years “without disciplinary sanction or prior warning” them shocks by his method: violent, unexpected, incomprehensible “.
After a prior interview, this dismissal for personal reasons intervened on January 2, a week before the Paris meetings, an important annual event for Unifrance. Just after having addressed his wishes to this employee, M Elstner gave him his letter of dismissal. It is, according to the staff, the “drop of water which crystallizes problems reported” from August 2020.
In three years, fourteen departures have been recorded, including two economic layoffs, conventional ruptures and retirement. More or less voluntary separations. The signatories wonder when their turn comes and describe the “stress that this decision induces, in an already highly deteriorated and weighing climate.
” blurry instructions, orders and counter-orders “
In the middle of COVID-19 pandemic, Unifrance has materialized its merger with International TVFRANCE, a rapprochement desired by the National Center for Cinema and Animated Image (CNC), its main guardianship alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “A merger is never a long, calm river,” says Sarah Hemar, director of the audiovisual of Unifrance. But “we are going in the right direction, as shown by the very good figures for exporting audiovisual programs [376 million euros in 2021, or + 6 % compared to 2020]”.
The changes go wrong. “We no longer understand the policy you put in place since the merger,” complain about employees. Their letter highlights the deterioration of the social climate and management methods. Some “feels [ent] denigrated by management.” The working methods are implicated, between “blurred instructions, orders and counter-orders”, lack of consultation, “recourse to external service providers of duplicates of the teams in place , closet of certain permanents “.
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