The chairman of the management board of Metro, Olaf Koch, has said that the company was "compelled to take action" regarding a new wage policy at the group's Real hypermarkets, after reaching a deadlock with German services union, Verdi.
“Following two years of negotiations with Verdi, including personal involvement in meetings from my side, there was no willingness to participate in developing a competitive solution for Real: neither to reform the regional collective agreement nor to conclude an in-house collective agreement with Real,” Koch said.
Last Friday, Verdi called a nationwide strike at Metro AG's Real hypermarket chain for Monday 26 November, to press a demand for its 34,000 staff to be covered by a collective pay deal.
Better Remuneration
According to the new wage policy, existing Real employees will benefit from wage continuity, while new employees will be remunerated according to the new pay scale model.
The company claims that the new pay scale model, introduced in June of this year, remunerates new employees much better than many competitors.
However, German services union Verdi had accused the wholesaler of abandoning collective pay agreements so that it could hire new staff at lower costs.
Around 3,600 employees have been hired under the new pay scale model, with the consent of local employee representatives, the company said.
Divestment On Track
The wholesaler also confirmed its intention to divest Real in order to focus on wholesale activities.
The company also said that the divestment process, announced in September of this year, has started and is progressing as planned.
“Our intention is to divest Real as a whole and only consider serious prospective buyers will be considered”, Koch said.
“We will thoroughly examine all incoming proposals with the support of appropriate consultants.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
