British retailer Marks & Spencer is in dispute with workers employed at its French stores after reports emerged of a strike by staff over the weekend.
News agency AFP reports that the employees went on strike Saturday, demanding pay rises and an end to what one union official described as "management by terror".
The company moved quickly to play down the extent of the strike, telling AFP that only around 35 people were involved in the strike, which did not resort in any store closures in the capital, Paris.
Countering the figures claim, Yasin Leguet, an official with the SECI-Unsa union that organised the strike action, said that more than 20 per cent of the retailer's 400 employees in France (excluding its 200 managers and executives) rallied outside a prominent Marks & Spencer store in Paris.
AFP added that Leguet said that striking staff wanted a 7-per-cent pay rise, an extra month's pay per year, and changes to management methods.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Andrew Jennings.