News

The Commission has adopted a report that identifies key issues potentially hampering more efficient and fairer retail services in Europa and is now launching a public consultation on the report to determine future policy priorities in this domain

The report called Retail market monitoring report “Towards more efficient and fairer retail services in the internal market for 2020” (SEC(2010)807) rightly points at the difficulties lived by workers in the sector:



Ø“Firstly, despite the minimum standards laid down in European law, labour law differs widely between Member States.”

Ø“The second problem is linked to the informal economy which, although difficult to gauge, has a negative impact on working conditions in the retail sector, in particular in small and micro-enterprises, where effective enforcement of legislation and collective agreements is more difficult.”

Ø“ While it is legitimate to want to reduce red tape for small firms of this kind, it is also vital to ensure that they do not cut corners on working conditions, in particular as far as health and safety are concerned.”

Ø“Thirdly, given the diversity of working conditions in the retail sector, it is often difficult for consumers to know about the social responsibility of particular retailers and thus to make an informed choice about where to shop.”

Ø“Finally, whilst the retail sector’s ability to absorb low-skilled workers is often emphasized as a positive characteristic, the associated down-side is that it may be more difficult for this sector to quickly adopt new technologies. The lack of ICT skills undermines the sector’s productivity.”

Ø“Improving working conditions, combating the informal economy and maintaining employment levels and competitiveness by better matching the needs of retailers and the skills of workers are therefore major challenges.”





The accompanying document to the Report on Retail Market Monitoring, a

staff document {COM(2010)355 final}, rightly explains that the retail sector is characterized by part time that is often involuntary and fix term contracts. In addition, the document highlights a series of misconducts by companies and challenges to be tackled to ensure a sustainable development of the sector.



“Where labour rules and conventions allow for Sunday opening of independently owned shops or lower levels of working conditions in such shops, large retail groups may enter and grow in such markets via franchising. Therefore, in general, those Member States with relatively high payroll tax and social security costs that have such a "loophole" for franchisees will be characterized by disproportionately high levels of independent retailers.”



“Retailers establishing in differing national retail markets may well be adapting their company form and business models to account for these differing treatments of labour across the Union. This might mean that retailers with good labour relations in their domestic EU countries when expanding into Member States with less effective and well enforced labour rules appear to adopt the questionable practices of the incumbents in those Member States in order to be competitive in the short-term in those markets. This shows a very significant failure in the Internal Market for retailing.”



“Labour cost optimisation should not imply lower wage and working conditions:

Staff are an essential input for customer services and loyalty and therefore excessive labour cost minimisation strategies are likely to be counterproductive for retailers.”





“ICT applications, such as self scanning and automatic check outs can be used to reduce staff levels directly or indirectly. In contrast, ICT can also be used to gather real time information on sales and supplies, which in turn enable retailers to plan working schedules accordingly and to put in place just-in-time delivery systems, which also have implications for staffing. This continually increasing use of ICT - and in particular of RFID technology - is therefore likely to impact employment levels and working conditions quite substantially. The skill profile of retailers' staff will gradually shift towards a higher median level such that the empowerment of ICT can be fully exploited by retailers.”



“Retailers will increasingly rely on multitasking which on the one hand can reduce monotony, but on the other requires higher skills and proportionately higher levels of remuneration. The current skills set of those entering the labour market and the relatively high churn rate in services including retail could therefore become important challenges in that regard.”





“ If the churn rates are not caused by bad working conditions for the relevant skill sets, then their high level will not be a problem. However, the current data on churn rates is not sufficiently disaggregated to measure whether this is the case or not.”



“ The current regulatory framework obviously seeks to strike a balance whereby the labour flexibility required by such sectors is achieved but not at the expense of working conditions including minimum wages that form one of the fundamental values characterising Europe's social market economy. It is largely organised on a national level and this leads to differing retail strategies being applied across the Member States that at times demonstrate how some of the relevant provisions or differentiation made in such laws or the presence or absence of trade unions and/or employee representation at the work place can be exploited at the expense of employees.”



The Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier said: "Retail services employ nearly 18 million people in the European economy. We can create more economic growth by taking away difficulties that retail services face. That's why I am now consulting widely on this report, and on that basis, I will bring forward concrete proposals in the autumn."





UNI Europa Commerce welcomes the publication of the EU Commission report and accompanying staff document and will prepare its position paper over the summer period to make sure that the trade union positions are taken into consideration by the EU institutions. UNI Europa Commerce will, if possible, adopt a joint position with EuroCommerce in September.