Social tensions at Inovie in Montpellier after the broadcast of France 2's Cash Investigation on “crisis profiteers”

The Inovie group, FREE MIDI – G. ITALIANO

The Cash Investigation program entitled "Crise Profiteurs", broadcast Thursday February 22 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2, had the effect of a bomb on the unions and employees of the Inovie group, whose headquarters are in Montpellier. 
 

"It's profitability instead of quality relationships with patients. From now on, they are customers", summarizes an employee placed on sick leave, "before Cash Investigation". This Tuesday March 5, i.e. fifteen days after the broadcast of the magazine on France 2, a meeting with management was requested by the inter-union to discuss the questions raised by the television investigation. Without a mask!

The magazine produced by Claire Tesson entitled "Profiteurs de crisis" highlights the enrichment of certain companies thanks to crises, from Covid to the war in Ukraine. In the viewfinder: energy suppliers and large medical analysis groups, including Inovie and its subsidiaries, based in Montpellier, chaired by Georges Ruiz, founder of Labosud in 2010, a major player in independent French biology, composed of practicing biologists.

"The frog wants to be as big as the ox!"

Labosud of the Inovie group, Eurofins, Cerba, Synlab, Unilabs and Biogroup: six large groups shared the PCR tests at the time of the pandemic, then 100% covered by Insurance disease. A godsend, for some. A duty for others! At the time of whatever it costs, at the rate of 73€ the exam at the peak of the pandemic, "the turnover took an insane leap, public money flowed afloat", summarizes Isabelle Lamrous, CGT Labosud union delegate. "This is where the story of the frog who wants to be as big as the ox begins, in the name of external growth!" .

"I don't understand how Mr. Ruiz, who started in a small lab, who grew up with his employees, has become so inhuman", whispers a secretary. "The show made me appreciate the profits and the pressure of a management that seeks to achieve its 31' nbsp;% margin and to pay as little social security charges as possible.

For Inovie, 2020 marks the time to open its capital to foreign investment funds. "Today Ardian and three others funds hold 60% of the capital", maintains the unionist, which denies the management which assures to have remained in the majority (read below). "The biologists sold their Labosud shares with all their might to reinvest in Inovie, shares which were valued by 320%", underlines a technician. A jackpot for the independents of Labosud: "it's like playing the lotto", testifies one of' #39;between them in the show.

A frantic race for profitability ?

Since then, employees say they are experiencing a race for profitability and a "disguised social plan"which would have allowed the company to separate 1,000 of its 7,500 employees, as reported by Cash Investigations (read below). "We had to rebalance the books after the pandemic. This was announced by management. We were thinking of non-renewed fixed-term contracts. With the consolidation of subsidiaries, we did not know how many. Labosud was 1,350 people, far from the 7,500 who would form the Inovie group.

It's in November 2023 that the unions "realize" profits. "The profit in 2021 is 245 M€ (for a turnover of 1.8 billion euros) and 175 million euros; in 2023. They use this drop to justify departures, but between 2019 and 2021 the group's profits have been multiplied by 3!".

"At the end of Covid, fixed-term contracts were certainly not renewed, but mistreatment, pressure, suffering at work became widespread". The group would then have engaged in a race for profitability, "to the detriment of employees and sometimes patients", we insist .

At the heart of the malaise: repercussions considered toxic linked to a quest for excessive profitability "degraded working conditions, too small staff, tight flow, staff optimization, departures and absences not replaced, forced mobility…".

"We time the technicians: 3 minutes per patient!"

A secretary on sick leave claims to have signed an amendment to her contract in 2020, containing"a mobility clause of 60 km from his  place of attachment. It was that or the door. The transfer that has just been imposed on me requires me to spend 240 euros; per month in fuel and highway costs. With a net salary of 1,600 euros, two children at home, it's impossible when I worked close to home. I love my job but today I could be fired for misconduct. Some live in Sommières and are sent to Sète.

"Before", explains an employee, "there were values. Today, we time the technicians, it's three minutes with a patient no more. We no longer take samples from elderly people at home, I had never experienced that.

"They were able to get rich thanks to our work. We worked 24 hours a day for Covid, and today we are being thrown away, it's horrible.

"In the absence of a fruitful meeting", it's is a national social movement that is taking shape. "New labs are opening to face pressing competition. We won't keep up the pace, warns Isabelle Lamrous. The discontent could well become… viral and highly contagious.

The management of the Inovie Group specifies

MODEL:Management specifies that Inovie is the only large medical biology group in France that is independent. It is directed by by medical biologists, health professionals, owners of their work tools, and who have the majority of of the capital and 75% of the voting rights. Thanks to à its model, Inovie, today has 650 laboratories, while we only had 400 in 2020, and takes care of 100,000 patients every day compared to 50,000 in 2020.

STAFF: We have responded to the state order: 700,000 tests per week from July 2020, which mechanically led to an increase in the number of tests per week. a peak of activity. This peak required the significant but temporary recruitment of fixed-term contracts including employees not authorized to work; exercise outside of Covid screening. Since August 1, 2022, the law ending à the state of emergency, put an end at the same time to this exceptional exemption and these contracts.

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