Aldi dispute apparently resolved: part-timers to work longer hours
Published: 27 March 1998
A dispute broke out recently at the Aldi chain of department stores over the workload of shop assistants. According to the trade unions, the number of workers scheduled to work each week was systematically too low. Management, by contrast, insisted on the precision of its staffing calculations. In the dispute, lightning strikes were held in various stores and the employees' organisations had threatened an all-out strike. However, a conciliation meeting organised at the Ministry of Employment and Labour led to a last-minute proposal from management.
A dispute in Belgium at the Aldi retail chain ended, for the time being, in March 1998. It had centred basically on the workload expected from shop assistants.
A dispute broke out recently at the Aldi chain of department stores over the workload of shop assistants. According to the trade unions, the number of workers scheduled to work each week was systematically too low. Management, by contrast, insisted on the precision of its staffing calculations. In the dispute, lightning strikes were held in various stores and the employees' organisations had threatened an all-out strike. However, a conciliation meeting organised at the Ministry of Employment and Labour led to a last-minute proposal from management.
The unions - with the exception of the French-speaking National Federation of White-Collar Workers (Centrale Nationale des Employés, CNE), which envisages further protests - were prepared to accept these proposals, although subject to additional conditions which relate to the details of guarantees for a lasting solution to workloads at Aldi. This preliminary agreement was approved by workplace activists, with reservations, on 17 March 1997.
The content of this agreement is remarkable. Attempts will be made to reduce workloads chiefly by increasing the number of hours worked by part-time employees. The average proposed in each branch is seven extra hours per week per employee. Overall, this represents the full-time equivalent of 56 extra members of staff (or 90 if expressed in terms of individuals).
Additional recruitment was not therefore chosen as a solution. In distributing these additional hours, preference will be given to staff on permanent contracts, more senior staff and those with the lowest number of contracted hours in the branch. Initially, this measure is temporary but, since management is explicitly holding out the prospect of a review of the personnel deployment system it operates, after 30 June 1998 this should lead to a definitive adjustment of the hours worked by increasing the contracted hours of part-time employees. In this second phase, these contract increases - amounting to a maximum of four hours per week - will be allocated to part-time workers on contracts for 20, 24 and 28 hours. This is in addition to maintaining the current numbers of workers employed in Flanders until the end of 1998.
The Aldi agreement is a clear illustration of general developments in working hours and workloads. It is striking to note that workloads have risen more sharply than the number of wage-earners. The explanation for this sharper rise in workloads can be found in a further increase in the average working week, both by full-time and part-time workers. However, the number of excessive work schedules is now falling for both types of worker.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1998), Aldi dispute apparently resolved: part-timers to work longer hours, article.
