Steris will close a production line of operating theatre devices, located in Haillan (Gironde) by the end of March 2025. Of the 246 employees at the site, 96 will lose their jobs, the others should be reassigned. A large number of them were on strike on 10 September to denounce a social plan whose conditions do not suit them.
The company’s management, which did not wish to respond to questions from L’Usine Nouvelle, assured in a press release that “Steris’ market share in Europe and France is stagnating at around 5%” and that “the production unit dedicated to operating theatres has still not reached financial maturity.”
The company’s social and economic committee and the Unsa union, in a joint press release, regret a “strictly financial” decision and denounce a “cut-rate” job protection plan (PSE). They are calling for “a significant improvement in the content in light of “the weakness of the measures proposed at this stage on the duration and compensation of reclassification leave, on qualifying training and retraining schemes, and on support for employees close to retirement.”
19th year of dividend increases
Steris set up its Haillan site in 2011, bringing together activities previously established in Switzerland, England and Orléans. Since then, it has benefited from aid from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region amounting to more than 1.2 million euros. Employees at the French subsidiary of the American company, which has 16,000 employees and 200 sites worldwide, are all the more bitter as the group saw its net profit increase by 7% in the first quarter of its staggered fiscal year. Steris also announced, for the 19th consecutive year, a dividend increase, and its share price reached its highest level in 52 weeks on Monday, September 9.
At the same time, the company unveiled a $100 million restructuring plan aimed at improving its profitability, which is particularly affecting employees at the Haillan site.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
