Organic markets promote fair, organic food. However, this is not the case with employees: underpay, overtime and missing works councils are a problem for the industry.
Photo: iStock
Organic markets are booming: Last year, according to the German Association of Natural Food Natural Products, 10 billion euros in organic food were made. While they are fairly produced, the way they interact with employees is different. The union ver.di criticizes bad conditions for the employees.
Employees in organic markets: Little leave, low pay
The ver.di Federal Retail Retail Expert, Orhan Akman, told 'Deutschlandfunk': " We have a huge workload because of the opening hours, because many businesses open late into the night, we have ever larger areas and fewer and fewer staff less full-time . "He also criticized that the decision-making power over holidays and employment plans lie solely with the employers, if there was no works council.
And that is often the case. For this reason, employees of an Alnatura branch in Bremen, the second largest biochain in Germany, wanted to found a works council in 2015. The reason: Unfair pay and overtime. But Alnatura denied the plan, it was said by former employees. The company itself stated that the majority of employees in the Bremen branch did not want a works council. In addition, the company dismissed all allegations in a public statement. To date, there is only one works council in Freiburg. Overall, the biolocation in Germany has about 133 stores.
Biomarkt because it gets first works council
Among the top three most popular and popular organic markets are Alnatura and Bio Company. Even market leader as the company Dennree, is in the criticism. For example, according to Zeit information, over a year ago, employees turned to the ver.di union for reports of unpaid overtime and low pay, among other things. So far The organic market chain had no works council, but that will change from May 2019. One will be selected for the storage location in Töpen.
And also the third largest chain, Bio Company, responded, ver.di had already criticized in 2012 the poor pay of the employees: Since then, a convened works council has been working each year on a company agreement, which regulates the payment of employees.
Also interesting:
- Hospitals: There are no 80, 000 nurses in Germany
- Discount staff tell you what it's like to work for Lidl & Co.
- Ryanair flight attendant unpacks: The working conditions at the low-cost airline are really that tough
