Inspectors find labor abuses in
European chain stores

By Zuzana Kawaciukova

Aug. 21— Employees of some of the largest chain stores are not compensated for working overtime and also suffer gender discrimination in the workplace, according to Prague’s labor office.

The most-prominent example is Netherlands-based Ahold, which runs the Hypernova and Albert retail chains. Officials from the Breclav labor office inspected Prague’s Hypernova outlet and found discrepancies in the company’s records from 2000 to 2002.

Two different books of employees’ time sheets were kept by the store. One showed that employees worked more hours than allowed by law. The other listed employees’ “regular” hours, which adhered to the labor laws. The latter record was the version the company submitted to the labor office.

The labor office also found that the company paid lower wages to a female employee than to her male counterpart.

If found to be in violation for the double-book discrepancy, Ahold could receive a six-figure fine, said Jaroslav Valny, director of the city’s labor office. In the case of gender discrimination, the company could have to pay a penalty of $9,000.

Ahold denied any wrongdoing. There was no gender-based wage discrimination because the employees concerned worked in similar but not identical positions, said Jiri Navratil, the company’s lawyer. He added that the female worker did not perform her job adequately — another reason she was paid less. As for the two sets of time sheets, Navratil said that the company maintains a single book — the one it submits regularly to the labor office. Employees manage a different time sheet, which differs from the official one because workers often switch shifts and compensate extra time with days off and other measures.

“For some unknown reason, Breclav’s labor office has been cruel to us,” Navratil said.

In addition to the two possible violations, inspectors found five minor legal breaches, none of which was subject to a fine.

The Ahold case is not the only recent one in Breclav. Last year the labor office inspected 10 large retail outlets and found violations in three of them. Labor office officials refused to name the retailers or describe the violations.

More than 10,500 labor office inspections were carried out nationwide in 2002. Violations were found in nearly 75 percent of the cases.

Labor Ministry spokeswoman Katerina Prejdova said that labor violations are a long-standing concern. Employees must take the initiative and report such practices, she said. “Workers tend to continue experiencing these problems rather than speaking openly with inspectors,” she said.

Valny concurred. “When it comes to the moment of truth, [employees] are afraid to speak up, as they do not want to lose their jobs.”

Another problem is expendability: In Breclav, a region with a 10.7 percent unemployment rate, employees are easily replaceable with temporary workers or with labor from nearby Slovakia.

Uncompensated overtime is a troubling side effect of high unemployment rates, said Alexander Leiner, head of the Federation of Retail Employees. “In regions with high unemployment, employees consider the unpaid hours worked for the employer to be the price they have to pay to preserve their jobs,” he said.

Contracts with temporary workers are another difficulty for both unions and the state. Employers have been hiring a growing number of temporary workers, legally circumventing the obligation to pay social and health insurance for them. Earlier this year at the Hypernova outlet in Brno, inspectors counted 150 full-time employees and 150 temporary workers on the employment rolls, said Martin Plsek, head of the control department at Brno’s labor office. He said that such a situation is legal under the current labor law.

Leiner criticized the apparent trend toward hiring temporary employees, most of whom work under six-month contracts. He would like to see the law comply with European Union law, which limits the number of a contracts between an employer and an employee, he said.

Some inspectors and union officials say that a regulation requiring notice of inspections 14 days in advance is partially to blame for violations. “Unannounced visits would find more offenses,” Leiner said.

Plsek said that in some cases an inspection must be announced in advance to give a company time to produce the required documentation.

Employees can help their cause by securing jobs with retailers that have a union presence, said a government official who asked not to be identified. “We have found fewer problems in companies where unions are active,” the official said.

The Labor Ministry has proposed a modified labor law that would shift more power to the labor offices, enabling them to levy higher penalties on offenders, Prejdova said. The Cabinet is to discuss the law later this year.

The ministry also plans to reintroduce an EU-compatible law prohibiting employers from signing more than two time-limited contracts with a single employee.

Source: The Prague Post