Picnic is sacking staff who complain or cause unrest, claims union FNV. To protest against this state of affairs, the union held a surprise action at one of Picnic's distribution points this week.
In recent months, the union carried out actions with a small number of Picnic employees to enforce a supermarket collective bargaining agreement. Employees who took part in those actions are now being put out on the street by Picnic, Marianne Jekkers of FNV told the AD. The online supermarket does give other reasons for this. For instance, one of the employees is said not to have reported sick in the correct way. "For us, this is difficult to check because other reasons are often given. This also makes it difficult for us to take action.''
Picnic can easily get rid of staff, according to FNV, because it works with temporary workers. "You can put those on the street overnight, without the company having to substantiate it.
'FNV wants to vilify us'
Founder Michiel Muller speaks in the AD about "mood making". He argues that Picnic does often say goodbye to people. "Sometimes because they don't fit in the team, sometimes because they don't follow the rules. But those are exceptions. It is nonsense what FNV suggests that our runners are massively dissatisfied. Look in our app groups, look at the employee surveys we do. The bulk of people enjoy working for us. The union has a few men active in the company; that is no measure."
After the summer, a lawsuit filed by FNV against Picnic will be heard. It will decide whether Picnic is breaking the rules by not applying the supermarket collective labour agreement. According to Muller, Picnic wants to step up the pressure ahead of the court case."They realise they cannot win the lawsuit, so they are trying to blacken us," he said.
