Social plans are continuing in the aeronautics sector. Unfortunately, it is Diehl Aviation’s turn to be overtaken by the drop in Airbus production rates at its Colomiers site. Specializing in the manufacture of cabin equipment (air system, cabin trim, toilets, etc.), the German group announced last November the elimination of around 1,500 jobs in Germany and France.
At Colomiers, a little over a hundred employees belonging to the Onsite Support Service work on all of the Airbus assembly lines. Since the outbreak of the crisis, almost all temporary workers and fixed-term contracts have been stopped. Today the job protection plan (PSE) provides for the elimination of about fifty jobs. “The first version of the PSE presented in December provides for a reduction in the workforce of around 50%. But the management, with the support of the state services, is working with the social partners to study all the avenues with regard to the new tools available to try to reduce the number of redundancies “replied Cyril Durand, director of OSS Diehl Aviation Toulouse. Recourse to long-term partial activity is one of the avenues for avoiding layoffs. The PSE must be submitted to the Direccte by the end of February. Employees are aware that production rates have fallen by 40% at Airbus, but they wonder how support for Airbus activity can be provided with only half of the workforce without degrading quality.
Some fear that the PSE is too heavy and requires management, when the recovery is there, to hire again. For its part, management ensures that the activity of this service in Toulouse concerns 75% support for the A350, one of the planes most affected by the drop in Airbus production rates. On the other hand, Diehl Aerospace, which provides after-sales service for electronic components and on-board lighting in Toulouse, “might not be forced to set up a PSE” confides Cyril Durand.
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