Staff at 10 Carrefour supermarkets return to work
Staff at ten Carrefour supermarkets, 4 of which in Brussels and two of which in Flemish Brabant, that downed tools on Friday morning have since returned. The Carrefour superstores at Drogenbos, Kraainem (Flemish Brabant), Evere, Oudergem, Sint-Agatha-Berchem (Brussels), Bieges (Walloon Brabant) Gosselies (Hainaut) and Ans (Liège Province) were all closed as was the Carrefour Market in the Brussels Municipality of Etterbeek. The industrial action at Carrefour followed a strike at that closed some branches of the Delhaize supermarket chain earlier this week.
As at Delhaize the strike came about due to staff dissatisfaction at the level of bonus being offered by management to compensate staff for the increased workload and potential health risk that has come about as a result of working during the COVID-19 crisis.
On its Facebookpage the Francophone Christian service industry union CNE said that its members were fed up with the management’s offer to compensated for the extra work and potential risk of working during the COVID-19 crisis.
"There has been tension and fear present for weeks”. Supermarket staff have faced waves of panic buying, increasing their workload. Furthermore, maintaining social distancing is difficult to say the least while stacking shelves in a store full of customers.