WRITTEN QUESTION E-2596/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(26 September 2001)

Subject: Conduct of a transfrontier supermarket chain in breach of the rules on competition collective wage agreements and general standards of propriety

1. Can the Commission confirm that the ALDI supermarket chain, which has its headquarters in Germany and branches in various Member States and was created by Theo and Karl Albrecht, two wealthy Europeans worth an estimated EUR 28 billion, seeks to keep its costs down not only by offering its wares to the customer in boxes piled high on pallets, with no bar-code readers to show the prices at the tills, but, above all, by requiring from its staff a high workrate, a high rate of absence through illness and, because of staff shortages, closing of shops on a few afternoons per week?

2. Can it also confirm that this transfrontier company asks its staff to sign contracts which require them to work 21,5 hours of voluntary overtime per month, dismisses any staff members who complain, refuses to meet the press, suddenly transfers staff members to branches dozens of kilometres from home, harasses in their homes staff members who are ill and imposes a 48-hour working week, requiring staff to work during the shorter working hours to which they are entitled?

3. Does the Commission deem it acceptable for an international company operating within the European Union in the manner described above in Questions 1 and 2 to infringe Union law, collective wage agreements, agreements as to transparency and general standards of propriety?

4. Is this state of affairs helped by the fact that the company directors are frequently resident in a Member State other than the one in which their establishments are located, with the result that those directors may hide away and not be accessible to anybody?

5. What is the Commission doing to counteract the misuse of internal frontiers and the undermining of the customary relationship between employers and employees in the European Union and to nullify the competitive advantages vis-à-vis other undertakings operating properly in accordance with the law and with collective wage agreements arising from such misuse?

Source: De Volkskrant (a Dutch newspaper), issue published on 3 September 2001

Answer given by Ms Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(12 November 2001)

The Commission has no specific information about the supermarket chain mentioned by the Honourable Member.

The Commission takes the view that it is up to the national authorities to judge whether enterprises have infringed legislation and/or collective agreements on working conditions.

The fact that the headquarters of an enterprise can be located in another Member State does not prevent the legislation of the Member State in which the workers usually work from being applied.

In its Green Paper on corporate social responsibility(1) adopted on 18 July 2001, the Commission has underlined that a major challenge for enterprises today is to attract and retain skilled workers. In this context, relevant measures could include life-long learning, empowerment of employees, better information throughout the company, better balance between work, family and leisure, greater workforce diversity, equal pay and career prospects for women, profit sharing and share ownership schemes and concern for employability as well as job security.

(1) COM(2001) 366 final.