News

The Metro Group's hypermarket chain Real will open a new store where wages and employment conditions are below the normal collective agreement levels. To make this possible, the company has created a special structure which is not part of the agreements with ver.di.

- This is a calculated attack by the Group's top management against the incomes and working conditions of the supermarket- and hypermarket-workers and thus also against the geographically covering collective agreements in retail trade, the union says.

Margret Mönig-Raane, vice president of ver.di, is strongly critical of Real's initiative:

- This is a no-good attempt to gain a competitive advantage over other commerce companies at the expense of the employees, she says.

In the new Real store in Lübeck in northern Germany, the working week would be three hours longer than normally, which means 41 hours. The hourly wage would be only 9 Euro, and there would be no premium pay for late night and Sunday work.

Ver.di is now preparing action to make sure that this will not open the doors for a general dumping of wages and working conditions in the Metro Group:

- Who behaves like this will get a clear answer from the workers, says Margret Mönig-Raane.