According to Reuter's sources, French drug maker Sanofi is looking to make a deal with unions in order to boost productivity by 20-25 percent at French manufacturing plants over three years.
Sanofi management is seeking to improve productivity of the company's French sites in order to reduce a gap with those of other Sanofi plants located in eastern Europe. According to Industry Week, however, the unions have reportedy responded saying that the French sites don't have a competitiveness problem.
A trade union leader told Industry Week that Sanofi management had discussed increasing working hours, cutting the number of days off, rearranging work patterns and requiring workers to carry out additional functions.
Union leaders have also expressed the fear of job cuts during this process.