Design Training for Customers

Task: Write a memo to RenaultпїЅs board outlining your assessment of SchweitzerпїЅs actions and his suitability in this important international position. Do you feel he should have behaved differently? Be sure to recommend a way forward.

Main Issue: As other automotive manufacturers, Renault was facing an overproduction problem, combined with a breakdown of national markets. After their plan of early retirement of some of their employees was rejected by the French government, RenaultпїЅs chairman, Louis Schweitzer, announced completely unexpectedly that it would reduce employees by closing the Vilvoorde plant.Consequently, 3,100 Renault workers and an estimated 3,000 employees in direct supply companies would loose their jobs in five months. From the legal perspective, the decision ignored all legal rules and procedures concerning factory closures, such as OECD procedures, national codes of conduct, and European Union and national legislation on collective redundancies and works council rights. According to these regulations , employees have the right to be notified before a decision about a factory closure is made and informed about the ways in which the company plans to deal with the consequences for the employees.

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