Hard Times: Working Conditions in Poland's Supermarket Sector
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32 autumn-winter 2012/HesaMag #06 Special report 21/32 Hard times: working conditions in Poland’s supermarket sector The past ten years have seen some of Europe’s biggest volume retailers making huge inroads into the Polish market. Trade unions are finding it hard to gain a foothold in this new sector. Few employees are in a union, and social dialogue is limited, which clearly goes nowhere towards helping improve employment and working conditions. Jan Czarzasty Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) Trade unions are unwelcome in Polish supermarkets. Image : © ImageGlobe 33 autumn-winter 2012/HesaMag #06 Special report 22/32 Working conditions in Poland’s big retail Praktiker, Real, Społem (domestic co-op net- A brighter picture chains have never been especially good. In work), and Tesco. It has failed to gain a foot- the mid-2000s, a new segment of the sector – hold in two chains, however: Lidl, where the The National Labour Inspectorate (Państwo- grocery discounters – emerged and rapidly branch established in 2006 died out within wa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP) carries out routine expanded on the market, spearheaded by the five years, and Selgros, where initial attempts inspections of working conditions in the big Biedronka chain owned and operated by the to fund a union failed due to the company’s retail chains each year, publishing its findings Portuguese-based Jeronimo Martins Distri- intransigence. in its Annual Report. A longitudinal analysis bution (JMD). Media reports of unethical not In four multinational networks (Auchan, of the inspection data collected points to a to say illegal personnel management practices Carrefour, Kaufland and Tesco), Solidarity continuous improvement in the working con- by the chain caused public outrage, however. successfully negotiated "partnership agree- ditions in big retail chains. That said, steady The findings sparked an immediate re- ments" with the employers. These are not on progress does not necessarily equate to "good" action, with the National Labour Inspector- a par with the "Tesco partnership agreement" working conditions. The number of irregular- ate launching a targeted auditing drive at the signed in the UK in 1998, as their content is ities and breaches of labour law found by in- big multinational retail chains. The public au- relatively modest. No single-employer collec- spectors has remained stubbornly high over thorities’ action was backed by trade unions, tive agreement has been signed in any of the the years. especially the NSZZ Solidarność (Solidarity), major foreign-owned retail networks. Nor is The labour inspectorate’s targeted in- and voluntary groups, in particular, the "Stop there a sector-level collective agreement for spection drive on big retailers started in 1999. the Exploitation – Biedronka Association". the retail industry. It was a two-pronged exercise: scheduled The organisation was originally founded in 2002 as a self-defence group of the chain’s suppliers claiming for unpaid deliveries. In 2004, the Association re-organized, taking a more interest-based approach to provide representation both for the chain’s business partners and for employees involved in disputes with the employer. It enjoyed some success in representing former employ- Table 1 National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) scheduled inspections of supermarkets, hypermarkets and ees’ interests at law and gave effective legal discount stores support to employees claiming unpaid wages (especially overtime payments). Meanwhile, 2000 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 large retail networks also became a focus of Number of outlets 52 66 52 61 78 75 87 122 112 organising activities for trade unions. inspected Since 1998, the Solidarity union has Number of employees 21 237 10 705 12 119 10 200 11 100 10 500 11 400 11 600 14 000 managed to establish itself in most of the in the outlets leading retail chains operating in Poland. inspected As of 2012, it has branches in Auchan, Bie- NB: only "rounded up" figures on the number of employees in the outlets inspected are available from dronka, Carrefour, Decathlon, H&M, IKEA, 2006 on. Intermarché, Kaufland, Makro Cash&Carry, Source: Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy 34 autumn-winter 2012/HesaMag #06 Special report 23/32 inspections supplemented by spot checks. 1. Two interviewees Table 2 Irregularities in working conditions Specific chains were also singled out for a identified themselves as documented by the Solidarity union particular focus each year. The overall pic- employed by Metro, hence ture of working conditions emerging from the inclusion of the Metro Group. Retailer Incidents reported the annual reports reflects a steady improve- 2. The number of Auchan Tesco 176 ment in employment law observance and and Metro workers safety. Smaller-scale retail operations serve interviewed was too small Carrefour 123 as a negative frame of reference for the big for inclusion in the analysis. Real 84 chains, as working conditions in traditional shops have been described as more prone to Biedronka 63 flouting the law and more dangerous. Auchan 34 The most frequent types of infringe- ments committed by big retailers are is rela- Kaufland 34 tively constant. The most common violations of employment rights related to working Source: ‘Solidarity’, based on data collected by the ‘Hiperwyzysk’ longer than normal hours and overtime pay. website as of June 2012 Labour productivity in superstores is in- creased through work intensification, i.e., in- creasing the workload. Where workplace safety is concerned, the most frequent types of offence by super- markets stem from the specific business mod- el, run on low profit margins. High turnover means high supply rate density, which may lead to a disregard of the rules on storage of goods, and obstruction of passageways in stores. Compliance with workplace safety rules in areas not strictly dependent on the mechanics of the supply chain, however, like on irregularities or breaches of law in their content of a website that collects anonymous provision of technical equipment (e.g., electric workplaces. Since being launched, the web- claims appears quite unfair and unjust from carts) or proper work clothing, can be effec- site has clocked up more than 250 000 visi- the company’s point of view", a Tesco direc- tively enforced by the authorities, i.e., through tors, its administrators report. Over 1 000 in- tor told the Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper. labour inspectorate inspection and enforce- cidents have been reported to date, mostly Even accepting some issues with verifying ment. relating to overwork and stress management the accuracy of claims made to the website, carried out in stores. however, its value as a whistle-blowing initia- Tesco received highest number of re- tive remains beyond doubt. The other side of the coin ported incidents, followed by Carrefour, then Another more detailed insight into su- Real, Biedronka, with Auchan and Kaufland permarket working conditions can be gained The generally optimistic picture that emerg- in equal last place. The total number of inci- from the research done by Solidarity under es from the official figures, however, must be dents reported for each chain must, however, another ESF-funded project "Fight for securi- offset by the findings of trade unions’ ongoing be seen relative to the total number of shops ty, retail with a human face". The survey done monitoring of retail industry working condi- operated by each chain in Table 2. With 380 by the union in 2010 (n=407) in the six lead- tions. In 2011, the Solidarity union launched stores (hypermarkets and supermarkets), the ing chains (Auchan, Biedronka, Carrefour, a website called 'Hiperwyzysk' (Hyperex- incident ratio for Tesco is 0.46, and for the Makro Cash&Carry, Metro1, Real) further ex- ploitation), with financial support from the rest: Carrefour 0.38 (321 stores), Real 1.55 (54 pands public knowledge about the quality of EU (the project is co-financed by the Human stores), Biedronka 0.03 (1 900 stores), Auchan employment with the big retail distributors. Capital Operational Programme, a part of the 1.25 (27 stores), and Kaufland 0.22 (154 stores). The survey found2 that most staff in the European Social Fund). The site aims to give The brands themselves dispute these outlets surveyed worked under employment retail workers somewhere to blow the whistle findings. "Drawing conclusions based on the contracts, as did 90% of interviewees (46% on 35 autumn-winter 2012/HesaMag #06 Special report 24/32 permanent contracts and 44% on fixed-term Carrefour 75% thought they were not (only 3. Apart from the contracts), while just one in ten staff worked 20% agreed). employment relationship under a civil law contract3. In Makro, all the Employment relations in the big distri- regulated by the Labour employees interviewed had regular employ- bution chains are definitely hindered by lack Code, other forms of employment exist based on ment contracts (84% permanent, 44% fixed- of trust between employees and employers. the Civil Code – known as term); in Real 98% of the respondents re- Most (54%) of the employees asked wheth- civil law contracts. These ported having an employment contract (59% er there was trust in mutual relations in the give employers a freer hand permanent, 37% fixed-term), with just 2% sector in general replied 'no', whereas 40% to set the terms of the working under a civil law contract; in Carre- believed there was trust between employees employment relationship. four, while the majority (88%) were employed and employers. Real and Biedronka emerged For example, there are under Labour Code contracts, only 35% had as two chains whose employees were most no prescribed maximum daily or weekly working a permanent contract and 53% a fixed-term positive in that respect: trust existed in the hours, no requirement to contract, while one in ten employees worked eyes of 50% of Real’s interviewees, and 45% pay overtime, establish under a civil law contract; the great majority of Biedronka’s.