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The biggest Belgian supermarket chain, Colruyt, has halted its latest e-commerce plans as it did not find an agreement with the trade unions. The plans were to extend working hours, in order to be able to prepare online orders in the stores without hindrance to customers.
No deal, no night shifts
Two weeks ago, Colruyt announced plans to trial night shifts in nine stores in order to accommodate the expected growth in online orders. Working hours would be extended to between 5h and midnight, with a combination of existing store employees and new ones. However, an agreement could not be reached with the trade unions, so the test has been postponed.
The unions demand a 50 % bonus for the night shift (compared to the 30 % offered by the board), a limitation to 22h rather than midnight and ‘predictable’ night shift schedules in order to allow employees to have a social life. “The trade unions are not in favour of night shifts in retail”, a common press release stated. However, they were quick to add that they “understood Colruyt’s needs to counter the threat of foreign competition by including a form of sustainable night shifts.”
Colruyt is now studying the unions’ official counter proposal, and has decided to halt the test project for now – but retains the hope that it can be started somewhere in the coming spring.
