General Electric to pay $57 million for missing French job target: ministry

FILE PHOTO: The General Electric logo is pictured on the General Electric offshore wind turbine plant in Montoir-de-Bretagne, near Saint-Nazaire, western France, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

PARIS (Reuters) – General Electric is to pay 50 million euros ($57 million) for failing to meet a job creation target agreed when it took over French group Alstom’s energy business, the French Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

The U.S. conglomerate is to pay the money into a reindustrialisation fund bringing together representatives of the company, local authorities where it has plants and the government.

When it bought Alstom’s energy business in 2015, GE had committed to maintain jobs for at least three years in France and create 1,000 net new jobs by the end of 2018.

GE has created only a net new 25 jobs in the face of weak demand for gas turbines, the Finance Ministry said.

($1 = 0.8754 euros)

Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta

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source: reuters.com