Trade unions in Russia won suits against Metro C&C anew.
We have already written about the numerous cases of discrimination of the trade union activists of Metro Cash and Carry Russia by management. Lyudmila Stolyarchuk, Anton Loginov, Ruslan Khuzhaev were among these activists.
Lyudmila Stolyarchuk an employee of Metro C&C Russia store in Tyumen, and a member of the trade union committee was fired in December 2009 soon after she had joined the trade union (in September of 2009). “Lyudmila Stolyarchuck had been considered a very skilled and reliable employee but immediately after she joined the union the management of the store began to put pressure on her. The charges against her were arranged and she was fired in December” –says Aleksandr Brusnitsin, the chair of the TU.
This situation was especially complicated for the TU because the Russian legislation had been amended in 2009, to reduce drastically the right of the TU to protect its activists against dismissal and other forms of persecution.
“We understood immediately that the case of Stolyarchuk was of utmost importance for the trade unions” – says Vasily Derkach the head of organizing department of the Trade Union Federation of Sverdlovsky region. “It was a case of honor for us to show that we can defend our members even in such a company as Metro C&C and even despite the change in legislation”.
The trade union filed a lawsuit and in June 2010 the court decided unequivocally in favor of the trade union activist. Stolyarchuk is returned to the workplace and Metro C&C Russia is obliged to pay out her wage for all the time since December and the compensation for the moral damage.
Anton Loginov and Ruslan Khuzhaev are the chair and the deputy chair of the trade union in Metro C&C store in Kopeysk (Chelyabinsk region). Soon after the establishment of the trade union organization the trade union activists were accused by management of theft. The criminal case was launched.
The investigation had taken more than a year. The accusation was proven completely invalid and the case was terminated in April 2010. Nevertheless the store management prevented Loginov and Khuzhaev from returning to their workplaces. Then the trade union filed a lawsuit.
In June 2010, the employer decided finally to make concession – the trade union leaders were allowed to return to their workplaces on the 15th of June.
On the 22 of June the trade union won the new battle in court. The court obliged Metro C&C store in Kopeysk to assure the basic trade union rights – to allow the trade union to hold its regular meetings on the store’s premises, and to set the TU information desk in the store.