«You have four hours? During those hours you keep pee on yourself, you don’t go to the bathroom anymore.” It’s just a small part of the message that a supermarket manager sent to her employees. The store in question is a point of sale of the chain MD of Brandizzoin the Turin area, and the cashiers are in the crosshairs.
The tones are harsh in the vocal that the director sent at the beginning of the month on the group Whatsapp which he uses to communicate with the store employees. A message that should have remained private, but was released after the company repeatedly ignored the unions’ requests for a meeting.
In the meantime, the company has distanced itself from the director’s message, adopting a suspension measure in his regards. On behalf of MD they also let it be known that the woman, during a meeting, he would have admitted that he had done something stupid and she would have apologized for her behavior “following a moment of nervousness”.
Meanwhile, in front of the MD of Brandizzo, the demonstration organized by the Uiltucs union of Ivrea to protest against the working conditions within the store. «We asked the mayor to take an active part in MD to be able to bring them to the table», he explains Francesco Sciarrageneral secretary who attacks: “After everything that has happened, we cannot think of resolving the matter with the director’s five-day suspension.”
And again: «MD is a company that hides personnel management that does not meet normal standards. The situation in Brandizzo is the one that can be seen from the voice and which has repercussions on the daily management of work, from shifts to safety which is absolutely precarious. I hope that this media aspect will serve as a spur for some inspections by the competent bodies. We are not asking for the moon, but only the rights provided by the contract and instead we receive retaliatory transfers and extreme shifts. Whereas i90% of the workforce is made up of women and mothers with 24 hour weekly contractsthis leads to female workers being in an inferior situation from the point of view of managing the employment relationship.”
