Crédit Lyonnais faces trouble with unions
Joel Jeuvell, head of the capital markets division at Crédit Lyonnais in London, is at the centre of a row with the powerful French trade unions.
The unions are up in arms because two senior staff in the capital markets business at Crédit Lyonnais received a combined bonus of FFr112m (€17.1m), not far short of the FFr120m bonus pool for the rest of the markets business at Crédit Lyonnais in Paris. The rest of the bank's 28,600 staff received a pay rise of 0.5% and an average bonus of FFr6,000, say the French unions.
Crédit Lyonnais refused to comment on the bonuses or the identity of the recipients. However, French trade union sources in Paris told Financial News that the two recipients of the bonuses were Jeuvell and Cyril Liabeuf, the head of equity derivatives trading at the firm. The two bonuses were for FFr65m and FFr47m. Both Jeuvell and Liabeuf refused to comment on the bonuses, but a senior market source confirmed their identities.
The payments have prompted a fierce assault on the bank by the main unions at Crédit Lyonnais. In an open letter to Jean Peyrelevade, head of Crédit Lyonnais, the CGT union said that 'having not been born with a silver spoon in our mouths, we have to work and earn a decent salary'. The union added: 'How is it possible to pay such exorbitant sums to a few staff, however much they may have 'earned' it? It is as much a moral as well as a social question.'
Peyrevelade received just FFr5.5m in 2000.
A representative of the CGT dismissed the line from Crédit Lyonnais that the matter was now closed: 'This is something that will run and run,' he said. The source played down suggestions that the unions could come to London and demonstrate at Crédit Lyonnais' London office, much like the French unions did recently with Marks & Spencer.
A representative of the CFDT, another French union, said: 'It is disgusting. For the past few years, most staff have had no or very little pay rise and many have been laid off. We will continue to protest against this.'
He also said that the two bonuses were 'unpatriotic', because they were paid in London, where Jeuvell and Liabeuf are based, and as such, avoided French tax and social security payments.
One senior source at Crédit Lyonnais said the bonuses were 'just the law of the markets' and that the firm needed to pay them to attract the best staff. 'The consequences of not paying would be far higher for the rest of the bank and its staff,' he said, pointing out that bonuses at other banks in Paris were paid at the same levels.
However, one union official said that Crédit Lyonnais was a particular case, in that a government bailout in the 1990s had cost taxpayers €18bn.
