L’activité des prud’hommes de Sète s’intensifie. Hélène Amiraux
The formal back-to-school hearing at the Sète industrial tribunal provided an opportunity to take stock of the 2024 results of an activity that is intensifying under the fire of the social context.
At this solemn start of the Sète industrial tribunal, the councillors had the honour of receiving the new first president of the Montpellier Court of Appeal, recently appointed, Jean-Michel Etcheverry. His first official visit since taking office. In front of an audience of personalities from the civil and judicial world, the president for 2024 of one of the oldest industrial tribunals in France (1850), Joachim Yapi, took the opportunity to hammer home some strong messages. First and foremost, a rant about the budgetary consequences caused by the “political twists and turns and catastrophic management by the government”, he launched at the opening . “I can't help but express my discontent,” he continued, citing certain man
Increased activity but lower inventory
The activity of the industrial tribunal is increasing. The court recorded 208 new cases in 2024, compared to 160 in 2023 (23% more) and 172 in 2022 (24 cases in summary proceedings). The volume of completed cases also accelerated: 181 compared to 147 in 2023 (19% more). “Despite the increase in activity and referrals, you have therefore managed to reduce the stock”, thus greeted Laurent Fekkar, the deputy prosecutor at the Montpellier judicial court. A stock level passed of 151 cases pending before the industrial tribunal compared to 156 in 2023.
In total, the advisers (15 for the employee college and 13 for the employer college for which two positions are still vacant), held 147 hearings in 2024, including 43 in the judgment office (including eleven in summary proceedings and 5 in tie-breaking proceedings (*)).
In 2024, eleven judgments were rendered by a distributing magistrate against 7 in 2023. An increase which does not satisfy the presidency of the Sète industrial tribunal: « I can only be surprised by these figures because the objective was to be downward and to tend towards zero tie-breaking by 2025/2026. Let us not forget that the referral to tie-breaking has the consequence of extending the life of cases », revealed the outgoing president of the industrial tribunal, Joachim Yapi (Medef). No fewer than 56 decisions of the court were appealed in 2024, i.e. 31% more than in 2023.
(*) When the advisers fail to reach an agreement and appeal to a balancing judge.
of equipment, including enough computers to allow the advisers to work.
“We must stay the course”
“And don't tell me there are no resources,” he said indignantly, pointing out certain expenses of the Ministry of Justice, such as the creation of a fresco on the walls of the Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone prison. “When we talk about the economy, this is not a good example”, he said, while some of the advisers' allowances are paid months late. On the activity side of a body responsible for deciding on disputes related to labor law, the president assures, “for 2025, always anxious to maintain our exemplary performances, we must stay the course”.
Less than 10 months of processing time
In this regard, Joachim Yapi mentioned a sharp increase in activity, particularly in referrals (see below) but also a drop in stocks. The representative of the prosecution service, the deputy prosecutor at the Montpellier judicial court, Laurent Fekkar, particularly welcomed the reduction in the processing time for cases, which went from an average of 15 months in 2021 to 11.3 months in 2022 and then to less than 10 months in 2023 and 2024.
While the number of new cases registered continues to increase (+23% in 2024), “this is explained in particular by the increase in the closure of businesses that no longer have the capacity to pay, it is linked to the social context”,confides President Joaquim Yapi. Among the important cases still in progress, the closure of Camaïeu. According to a 2023 report at the national level, 56,212 companies have closed, having generated 23,638 cases opened before the industrial tribunals of France (+ 35%). At the end of the hearing, Joaquim Yapi passed the torch of the rotating presidency to Bertrand Lacabanne (employee college) for 2025, the last year before the end of the mandate. The latter highlighted the work of the commission studying the decisions rendered by the Court of Appeal concerning the decisions of the Sète jurisdiction and the training days attended by the advisers, to continue “to properly render the law at the service of litigants”.
The Sète industrial tribunal is made up of 15 advisers for the employee college (6 CGT, 4 CFDT, 3 FO, 2 CFE-CGC) and 13 advisers for the employer college (there are still two positions to be filled).
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