Créteil court halts part of Infopro Digital’s AI-linked newsroom cuts

A court in Créteil has partially suspended Infopro Digital’s plan to eliminate editorial-secretary jobs and shift much of their work to artificial intelligence, finding that the proposal had not been tested in a real working situation. The Sept. 15 order halted the first phase affecting eight editorial secretaries at Gisi, an Infopro Digital subsidiary that publishes titles including L’Usine Nouvelle and LSA Conso. The Judicial Court of Créteil said deployment of the plan, without a real-life trial, posed a “serious and characterized risk” to the physical and mental health of several categories of employees. According to Stratégies, the order carries a penalty of €8,000 for each day of delay in complying. The court required more complete tests before the reorganisation could proceed. Franceinfo reported that this included producing a full unpublished “number zero” edition, allowing the newsroom to assess the system across every page of a magazine. The suspended Gisi plan is part of a wider proposal affecting 19 permanent editorial-secretary journalists across 26 professional publications. Announced to employee representatives on May 4, it would replace the roles with five chief-editor positions working with AI: three at Groupe Moniteur and two at Gisi. Editorial secretaries check and improve colleagues’ copy and prepare it for publication. Under the proposal, an internal AI system called Digi would take on work including verification, proofreading, editorial hierarchy and titling. Infopro Digital estimated that AI could perform 70% of editorial-secretary tasks. At Gisi, the company had said functions not handled by AI would pass to two new chief-editor roles. Management said it would continue tests already under way and suspend the project while finalising them, as the judge required. Isabelle André, an Infopro Digital director, said coordination and overall proofreading should remain with chief editors, and that newsroom positions with training had been offered to all affected editorial secretaries, though some declined them. The company presented the restructuring as a means of cutting payroll and magazine-production costs. The SNJ inter-union group challenged that rationale, noting that Groupe Moniteur and Gisi recorded €38.4 million in EBITDA on €141.6 million in 2024 revenue, a 27.1% margin. It also alleged that management had refused union requests to negotiate a charter governing AI use. Employee representatives had already taken the company to court to compel an information-and-consultation procedure over generative AI after disputing its treatment as a new technology. Around 250 journalists from the 26 affected titles went on strike in the spring after the job cuts were announced. Unions said they did not oppose using AI provided it did not lead to layoffs and fact-checking remained a journalists’ responsibility. The European Federation of Journalists called the decision a historic early victory, arguing that AI was increasingly being invoked in France to support large-scale redundancy plans without an established framework or sufficient experience. Management reserved the right to appeal. A separate employment-protection plan involving 11 editorial secretaries at Groupe Moniteur was awaiting approval by the regional labour authority, Drieets.