Redundancy announcement leads to meltdown
Police were called in to free the British director of an ice cream factory in Saint-Dizier, France, this month, when he was held hostage overnight by angry workers after he announced plans for 250 redundancies. He escaped his captors only after police stormed the building.
The Cogesal-Miko factory in Saint-Dizier makes ice-cream cones and tubs for well known brand names such as Cornetto and Carte d’Or. Having announced plans to make more than half of the factory’s 493 workers redundant and outlining the redundancy terms, Prakesh Patel, the managing director, was preparing to leave work. Around 40 workers stopped Mr Patel from getting into his car. They demanded an immediate meeting about their redundancy packages, but Mr Patel refused and insisted on sticking to a planned negotiating timetable. So, the workers seized him and held him hostage in his office overnight. He was released after police stormed the building. 14 workers were injured as police broke through their ranks to free Mr Patel.
While the factory does make ‘rocky road’ flavour ice cream, this brings a whole new dimension to consulting with a view to reaching agreement. To prevent anymore angry scenes, the director’s office has now been ‘coned’ off.
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