KARAT Coalition in cooperation with its partners in the project: Labour rights protection from a gender perspective in super/hypermarkets in Poland as well as with experts who are members of the Strategic Action Advise Body (SAAB) has prepared the report: Working conditions and labour rights protection from gender perspective in supermarkets in Poland.
The report is a legal analysis focusing on the labour rights protection system related to the forms and areas of violationsof the labour rights of women employed in super/hypermarkets in Poland identified by the research conducted by KARAT in 2008.
The main conclusions of the report are:
- the employers aim at maximization of profits at the costs of the employees and their rights
- it is possible to protect employees of assure super/ hypermarkets from abuses using existing labour law regulations
- too low number of employees, caused by cost-cutting measures implemented by the supermarkets’ chains
- extreme rotation of the employees caused by low salaries, bad working conditions (exploitation of the employees, too many tasks employees are responsible for, problematic employee-supervisor relationships, the obligation to work on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays)
- employers, managers and employs ignorance of labour law regulations, including the reconciliation of the employees on the abuses and violations
- inappropriate implementation of the labour law regulations
- bad organisation of work
- bad managment of the super/hypermarkets chains and individual stores
- insufficient technical equipment in super/hypermarkets to support manual transportation of goods
- lack of employers’ good will in relations with employees
The report also answers why the super/hypermarkets employees do not pursue their claims. Main reasons are:
- fear of job loss
- fear of being persecuted
- lack of knowledge about employees rights and protection the labour law gives
- lack of access to professional and affordable lawyers' service
In frames of the project: “Labour rights protection from gender perspective in super/ hyper markets in Poland” the research on working conditions: “Situation of women employed in super/hyper markets in Poland” was conducted in April and May 2008. This activity was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and is the contribution to the project sponsored by Open Society Institute-Zug. The aim of the research was to identify the forms and areas of the violation of labour rights in the supermarkets in order to improve the working conditions of women employed in super/hyper markets in Poland.
Within the research two focus group interviews in two representative Polish cities: Kraków in the south of Poland and Olsztyn – in the north were carried out by a research company – PBJ Marketing Research from Kraków. Two groups of 8 women were interviewed, from which none belonged to any trade union, employees organisation or movement. Focus group interview was based on a free discussion over questions asked by the moderator. Here the projection techniques (unfinished sentences test and the collage) that help to gain knowledge about needs, motivations and convictions that the respondents are unaware of were used additionally.
To deepen already collected information and to widen the picture of working conditions in super/hyper markets, individual interviews with 5 workers’ rights movement leaders and trade union members were conducted. Interviewed women were chosen by the KARAT Coalition after consultations with the SAAB members. The scenario of the focus interviews and the questionnaires were prepared by the project coordinator together with the KARAT Coalition experts.
The research gave an updated information about the super/hyper markets’ ways of acting that require a significant improvement, and about the current situation and working conditions there. The areas and forms of employees’ rights violations from the perspective of women employed in the international and local chains of super/hyper markets were identified.
The research results and conclusions are contained in the report.The main conclusion of the report is that, although the labour law is not bad, its implementation is improper and the labour rights protection system often fails. The most obvious cases of labour rights infringement include abusing the length of shifts and breaks between them or the amount of days worked without a day off. Furthermore, even though there were many cases won by the employees of super/hyper markets against their employers and the situation was said to be improved, the violations of the employees’ rights are still widespread
The report is available in Polish, English and Russian.
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