The trade sector facing the challenge of harmonization

A sectoral consultation Monday, followed Tuesday by a meeting between management and unions of Delhaize convened by a conciliator: the beginning of next week will mark the beginning of a resumption of dialogue between bosses and unions of the distribution? We want to see. But note that it is the first time that the social interlocutors will see each other since the outbreak, more than 5 weeks ago, of the social conflict caused by Delhaize management’s plan to franchise its 128 integrated supermarkets.

For once, the classic questions of purchasing power and end-of-career planning will be relegated to the background of the discussions. The unions make no secret of their desire to put the question of the harmonization of working conditions on the table from the outset. “This is a priority point, on which substantial progress will be needed”, warns Myriam Delmée, president of SETCa and veteran of the trade sector.

Eager to mark the occasion, the Christian (CNE and ACV Puls) and liberal (CGSLB) unions filed a strike notice which the SETCa did not join, which finds it premature. At this stage, it will not be followed up. The unions, on the other hand, have planned a common front rally monday morning before the FPS Employment, before the opening of the consultation.

Concretely, it will be bring together as much as possible the different social systems to which commercial workers are subject. They are currently subject to 5 joint commissions depending on the type of store they work for. Between CP 201, which oversees small businesses, and 312, which includes hypermarkets (Cora and Carrefour), the differences in wages and work pace are significant. In the middle, we find independent shops with more than 20 workers, linked to PC 202.01, and integrated supermarkets, which belong to PC 202. Large non-food retail companies (H&M, Ikea, etc.) depend on them from CP 311.

Does the mission of the social interlocutors amount to trying to square the circle? The biannual sectoral negotiations, organized in the wake of the conclusion of a federal interprofessional agreement, promise to be complicated to say the least. Because if the employers’ organizations have nothing against the principle of a rapprochement between the various joint committees, they reject the idea of ​​upward harmonisation, clearly to the conditions of CP 202 for integrated stores.

On the employer’s bench, we hammer at will the need to instil more “modernity”, in other words more flexibility and suppleness. “If modernity is going in the direction of the unions who have decreed that Sunday is synonymous with a walk in the woods for all Belgians, it’s no”, launched 10 days ago in L’Echo Pierre- Frédéric Nyst, President of the Union des Classes Moyennes (UCM).

However, the employer’s position is not monolithic. Spurred on by Delhaize’s change in business model, the Colruyt group

came out of the woodwork by sending a letter to the Federal Minister for Employment, Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS), asking that the system of joint committees be simplified and “more equitable”.

The leading Belgian distributor is, in a way, the objective ally of the trade unions, by putting on the table the issue of social dumping induced by the franchising of the 128 Delhaize supermarkets. “This is a unique opportunity to move towards harmonization of joint committees. The workers understood with Delhaize that franchising was above all a means of taking advantage of the legislation to create social dumping”, underlines Myriam Djegham, permanent CNE.

For Myriam Delmée, the stakes are crucial. “Without harmonization, there is a risk that within two years other brands will adopt the same behavior as Delhaize. How could a Carrefour or a Colruyt continue to operate in the face of 128 Delhaize supermarkets which will be open on Sunday?” she asks.

Pierre-Alexandre Billiet, the CEO of the specialized site Gondola, is more mixed. “The timing of the negotiations is not ideal. They come at a time when the pressure on a model of society is strong. And I don’t understand why Colruyt only came out of the woods 7 years after the Ahold-Delhaize merger and did not anticipate the arrival of Albert Heijn, who only has franchise stores,” he says.

The negotiations will be all the more complicated, according to him, as the world of Belgian distribution moved from a Rhine model of consultation, symbolized by GIB, to an Anglo-Saxon model where staff is an adjustment variable. “Belgian distribution has already paid the price for the complexity of its social model with e-commerce and risks paying a second time with franchising”, underlines the boss of Gondola.

The latter does not expect much from the conciliation which begins Tuesday at Delhaize. To his eyes, the social aspect of the file was buried on Wednesday, with the deafening silence of the laying of Ahold Delhaize

on the dossier at the general meeting of the group. Economic negotiation is now essential.

Better late than never? Delhaize, which plays the watch, obtained that the conciliator does not bring together the interlocutors until April 18. It’s late. The process of franchising the 128 stores will undoubtedly take time, but it is virtually acquired. The challenge for the unions will be to obtain maximum guarantees for the 9,200 workers concerned.

A lawyer specializing in franchising, Pierre Demolin insists on the need for franchisees to set their requirements to franchisors. In the case of Delhaize, the question arises of social liability. “The whole problem is there. If Delhaize wants to let go of its integrated points of sale, it must do so by offering viable conditions to the buyers, which notably implies making efforts to preserve the salary conditions of the staff of these stores”, underlines he.

Tuesday’s meeting will only be a first contact. But it will undoubtedly give an idea of ​​the sequence of events. “If Delhaize continues its provocations, we will not be in a pattern of a return to more serenity”, says Myriam Delmée.