2023-07-18 20:06:49
The more than 100 employees of the site will receive severance pay or reclassifications within the Nestlé group.
2022 should have been a festive year for Buitoni. That of the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of its factory in Caudry, a medium-sized town in the Nord department, built not far from Cambrai.
But nothing went as planned. In March of that year, Buitoni had to recall its frozen pizzas from the Fraîch’Up range after health authorities detected an upsurge in E.coli contamination.
Quickly, the death of two children is attributed to the consumption of pizza dough produced in Caudry. Several dozen people are poisoned.
A mixture of satisfaction, anger and injustice
The health scandal is gaining momentum and ends up sealing the future of the more than 100 employees of the site. Last March, a year after the shutdown of the Fraîch’Up pizza production line, the Nestlé group, Buitoni’s parent company, officially closed the factory on the horizon of December 31, triggering the ire of employees. Argument put forward by management: a drop in sales.
Last week, the management of the agrifood giant and employee representatives reached an agreement on the job protection plan (PSE). The latter provides for both severance pay and business start-up assistance as well as reclassifications within the group.
This Tuesday, satisfaction, anger and a feeling of injustice mingled in the discussions of the employees still posted at the camp set up in front of the Caudry factory. Satisfaction because the unions believe they have been able to protect the interests of employees. Anger because, for some of them, it was the job of a lifetime. Finally, misunderstanding, because renovation work had been undertaken in the factory after the shock wave of the scandal.
These employees will break camp this Wednesday, report our colleagues from France Blue North. As a farewell to the factory, balloons will be released into the sky at 10 p.m. Almost everyone has lost hope that a buyer will revitalize the site.
Ongoing judicial investigation
On the side of Buitoni’s management, the saga is set to continue, certainly in court. Since May 2022, a judicial investigation for manslaughter and involuntary injuries has been open.
Pending the progress of the investigation, Nestlé has signed a compensation agreement with the families of the victims – the amount of which has not been filtered, extinguishing the civil procedure, but not the criminal procedure.
Even today, the origin of the contamination remains undetermined. In the opinion of Nestlé, it could be linked to the flour used to make the pizza dough. On the side of the prefecture, various hypotheses are put forward, such as the “presence of rodents” in the factory and the “lack of maintenance and cleaning of the manufacturing areas”.
Xavier Silly with Florian Bouhot
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