Strike at BHV Marais: employees demand transparency and payment of their social benefits

BHV Marais employees are called to strike on Friday afternoon to defend their social benefits and demand “total transparency on the cash flow” of the Parisian department store, their union announced on Tuesday.

“We are taken for hams,” proclaims the leaflet distributed Tuesday by the unions (CFDT, CFTC, CFE-CGC, CGT, SUD Solidaires) of the emblematic Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, deserted for months by brands due to unpaid debts and/or a controversial partnership with the Asian giant Shein.

The labor inspectorate suspects the establishment - taken over at a loss in June by some of its managers from Frédéric Merlin's SGM - of being in cessation of payments and has reported it to the courts, according to the Paris prosecutor's office, which the management contests. In the meantime, the situation weighs on employees, according to the inter-union, worried about their collective mutual insurance, threatened with “suspension”. “Our contributions are withdrawn from our salaries, but the company has not paid them to the insurer since the last quarter of 2025,” she is indignant.

A delay that adds fuel to the fire

Also in its sights, “delays” concerning meal vouchers or subsidies for social and cultural activities, as well as the addition of an employee savings plan. “Taking money from employees” and “not paying back the amounts owed” is “unacceptable!” insists the leaflet, calling for a rally on Friday September 11 at 3 p.m. in front of the BHV premises, near Paris town hall.

Contacted by AFP, BHV management assures that these questions will be resolved “within the week” for meal vouchers and mutual insurance, and in the “next few” for the others. In July, it unveiled a recovery plan which should materialize on Thursday with the full reopening of the ground floor during the “Paris Design Week” design fair. In addition, “more than 40 brands are preparing their establishment or their return, including Habitat, Flamant, France Canapé and Le Tanneur,” she underlines.

In an internal back-to-school memo, consulted by AFP, boss Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, however, stressed that “the speed and solidity” of the relaunch of the BHV depended on the payment of compensation, of “nearly 23 million” euros, by its lessor, the Canadian fund Brookfield, in exchange for the release of half of the building's surface area. But Brookfield, for which all the conditions associated with these compensations are not met, "is not our employer", responded in another leaflet the inter-union, which hopes to challenge the public authorities on the fate of some 700 employees.