The increasing use of self-service checkouts in French supermarkets is a source of concern among workers in the retail sector. Trade union mobilisation against the various forms of ‘self-checkouts’ in supermarkets began in the spring of 2007 and will most likely continue, as it is estimated that half of all checkout jobs could disappear by 2012. Many of the larger retail stores already have self-service tills installed and plan to expand such options in other stores due to customer demand.
Following on from self-service petrol pumps using credit cards and automatic telling machines (ATMs) in banks, supermarkets – particularly grocery stores – have now begun to introduce self-checkouts.
The following two self checkout systems are currently being tested in supermarkets:
The major chain stores in France have introduced these new systems to varying degrees. Auchan has introduced such systems in 40 of its 120 hypermarkets and plans to extend these to 30 other stores before the end of the year. Casino has made provisions for self-checkouts in 60 out of its 127 hypermarkets and 23 of its 400 supermarkets. Carrefour – the biggest group in the retail sector – has installed self-checkouts in 23 of its 218 hypermarkets. According to the Retail Technical Association (Association Technique du Commerce et de la Distribution, Perifem), between 15% and 20% of the 10,685 shops in France already have self-service systems in place.
The chain stores maintain that extending the system will not threaten jobs, as these self-service tills are mainly used ‘to deal with the volatile nature of shopping habits’. The Chair of the Leclerc supermarket chain, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, emphasises that there is ‘real customer demand’ for such tills. He highlights that customers who want to buy just one or two items during their lunch break do not want to wait in a queue behind customers with overloaded trolleys. Likewise, according to Carrefour, self-checkouts have ‘met with strong support from staff as demands for them from customer service staff have turned out to be greater than the need for them’.
However, trade unions are worried about these technological innovations and believe that they could pose a serious threat to the jobs of the 170,000 cashiers in large-scale retailing.
On 17 February and 9 March 2007, the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) – together with its National Consumer Association (Association Syndicale d’Étude sur la Consommation, Asseco-CFDT) – organised its first two mobilisations against the increased installation of self-checkouts. Customers were invited ‘to refuse the introduction of self-checkouts at the expense of jobs’. On 13 April and 1 June 2007, further action took place in front of about a hundred shops belonging to the chain stores Atac, Auchan, Carrefour, Casino and Champion.
CFDT is concerned about the lack of negotiations with employers in the sector with regard to the installation of self-checkouts. According to the Commerce Officer of the CFDT-affiliated Services Workers’ Federation (Fédération des Services, CFDT-Services), Aline Levron, employers ‘have not deigned to answer our request for negotiations, notably concerning forward-looking employment and skills management’.
According to CFDT, self-service tills ‘will put 50% of checkout jobs at risk over the next four or five years, namely 85,000’ jobs in large-scale retailing. The General Confederation of Labour – Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) shares these fears.
President Jérôme Bédier of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution Employers (Fédération des enterprises du commerce et de la distribution, FCD), which is affiliated to the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF), emphasises that there is ‘no short or medium-term threat to jobs’ and recalls that the sector creates ‘between 10,000 and 20,000 jobs every year’. Employers prefer to speak of redeployment, which would not involve redundancies and would be an opportunity for increasing workers’ skills, as they would be able to devote themselves to advising customers.
In the opinion of economist André Gauron,
the impact on turnover related to a loss of customers because of waiting time at tills has turned out to be more important for companies’ results than benefits resulting from exemptions in relation to employers’ social taxes. Given the organisational problems associated with opening a large number of tills at midday for a short period of time, the installation of self-checkouts appears to be more rational. This process seems to be inevitable, according to professionals in the sector. Disadvantages for checkout staff due to the decline in the number of jobs may be balanced by the fact that self-checkouts should reduce precariousness and job insecurity related to the widespread imposition of part-time employment to meet customer demand.
In the long term, the real fear of trade unions concerns radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, which will make it possible by around 2017 to automatically print till receipts after passing through a detector frame.
Yves Lochard, Institute for Economic and Social Research (IRES)