News

Metro Group EWC elects new president and addresses urgent worker issues.



The Metro Group EWC "Euroforum" at its meeting on 16 and 17 February 2011 in Düsseldorf (Germany) elected Gerald Reinosa (CFDT, France) as new president and Ulrike Kaufmann (ver.di, Germany) as vice-president.

Mr. Gérald Reinosa and Mrs Ulrike Kaufmann

A team of five additional representatives from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain  (the EWC steering committee) will support the presidents in their work to lead the EWC.



Concerns about the group-wide accounting centralisation programme "CORA" which risks the loss of up to 3,000 jobs dominated the discussions on both days.



An "emergency" steering committee meeting will be held on 10 March 2011 at which the company has been asked to present the programme in more detail and to present suggestions as regards the least possible number of jobs to be lost.



Allegations by UNI affiliate ver.di regarding the re-occuring violation of worker and union rights at Metro Group owned Mediamarkt in Germany sparked a discussion about the application of the groups published principles. Assurances were given by Global HR Director Dr. Claudia Schlossberger that those principles applied to all Metro Group sales lines, including Mediamarkt and Saturn.

Global HR Director Dr. Claudia Schlossberger, CEO Dr. Cordes, Mr. Gérald Reinosa, Mrs. Ulrike Kaufmann

Representants from Greece, Belgium and France

On behalf of UNI Global Union, Alke Boessiger (Head of UNI Commerce) announced that the company will be presented with the results of research carried out among UNI affiliated unions which clearly show that inside Metro Group those principles are regularly violated. The call for a global agreement with UNI was renewed as a means to jointly ensure that worker and union rights are respected throughout the company.



Head of public relations, Dr. Innacker agreed with the establishment of a joint working group with the EWC which will discuss the policies proposed by the Metro Group Sustainability Board and make suggestions as regards the inclusion of worker and union rights into those policies.