In our chain board in Coop Norway, they decided that they will extend the opening hours of Coop’s discount chain Extra on Saturdays – from 9 pm to 11 pm.
Trade union representatives in some cooperatives react strongly to the provision on opening hours on Saturdays.
– I understand that the competition in the grocery trade is fierce, but that employees will be pushed with working hours to 23 on Saturday as well, I do not understand. There must be a real need and a profitability to stay open after 21 on Saturday, not just competition with competitors, writes Anne Svendsvoll, chief shop steward in Coop Sør-Vest, in an e-mail to Nettavisen.
Several of the Extra stores in the Tønsberg area are open until either 9 pm or 10 pm on Saturdays.
– Negative consequences
Svendsvoll states that employees reacted with disappointment when they learned about the expansion at an information meeting in March. Furthermore, she points out that it is associated with increased workload after 9 pm.
– We have that burden regardless of whether it is permitted by law to remain open. In the central negotiations last year, the Trade and Office trade union managed to increase the weekend supplement significantly on Saturdays after 6 pm, in order to frame Sunday, our common day off. Unfortunately, there has still been an extension of opening and working hours, so the supplement was not expensive enough, says Svendsvoll.
In Coop Sør-Vest, employees are concerned about the way in which the decision on extending the opening hours takes place. Svendsvoll claims that shop stewards in her cooperative team themselves had to ask for a discussion of the case, before they had a meeting with the management.
HK-news, who first mentioned the case, writes that the meeting should have ended with a disagreement, where the shop stewards also claim that the employer has violated the duty to discuss, and thus also the main agreement.
To Nettavisen, Svendsvoll justifies the breach as follows:
Discussions must take place before a decision is made, according to the main agreement. It states “if the company management does not find it possible to take into account the allegations of the shop stewards, it shall substantiate its view”.
In section 4.5.2 Discussions in The main agreement LO-Virke, to which she refers, it states, among other things, the following:
«The company’s management shall as soon as possible discuss with the shop stewards (the working committee):
– Employment issues, including plans for expansion and restrictions.- Merger, demerger, complete or partial closure or legal reorganization of business. The shop stewards shall be informed of the cause and the legal, financial and employment consequences that are assumed to entail for the employees. The company’s management shall ensure a meeting between the shop stewards and the new owners regarding the transfer and whether the collective agreement shall continue to apply ».
Furthermore, the section states that such discussions shall be held as early as possible and at least once a month if there is no agreement on anything else, and also when the shop stewards request it.
Necessary night work?
To HK-nytt, Svendsvoll asks whether the expansion can be characterized as necessary night work. In the Working Environment Act night work is defined as work between 21.00 and 06.00, and is not permitted unless the nature of the work makes it necessary.
However, the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority writes that “the starting point for the assessment is whether night work is necessary for production reasons or to meet the needs of society or the general public”.
Nina Hammer Thysse, chief shop steward in Coop Gjesdal, tells HK-Nytt that she understands that Extra will extend the opening hours at Ålgård.
– With us, the competition is fierce, so it was unfortunately necessary, showed an analysis of shopping habits. But that it will be introduced longer opening hours at all stores in the country, I think is hair-raising. Especially with the many Extra stores that are located almost by themselves, without competition. It will not be profitable, and it is a burden for the employees, says Thysse.
Will secure jobs
Harald Kristiansen, communications manager at Coop Norge, says that the reason why Extra recommends the cooperative teams to extend the opening hours to 23,000 is for competition reasons.
– Our competitors have been open until 11 pm on Saturdays for a long time. It is obviously a wish from the customers when two of our competitors have opened so late, says Kristiansen.
– We must extend our opening hours to be competitive and keep customers, and thus also secure today’s jobs, he points out.
Kristiansen says that grocery customers are not particularly loyal. Coop believes they risk that customers who want to shop late Saturday night, also continue to shop at Extra’s competitors if Extra does not follow the competitors’ opening hours.
– We clearly see that where we have followed the competitors during opening hours, we have increased customer traffic, he says.
Today, around 200 Extra stores have extended their opening hours on Saturdays. Several of these had extended opening hours before it became part of the chain concept, in order to be competitive with the other grocery chains.
– We would like to keep the old opening hours, but the competition for customers is so fierce in our industry, that to ensure our turnover and today’s jobs, we must adapt to a new time.
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Believes the grip provides flexibility
Grocery expert and NHH professor Øystein Foros is unsure of the sales effect of an extended opening hours from Coop’s side.
– They probably do not get quite the large turnover from extending the opening hours from 21 to 23, but where Extra stores compete directly against a Rema or Kiwi store, it will be important to match them during opening hours, says Foros to Nettavisen .
Rema and Kiwi are already open until 11 pm on Saturdays.
– People do not think so much, but if you know that Rema “always” is open, then you go there, he says.
Therefore, Foros believes that it is right for Coop to extend the opening hours of the Extra stores where there is competition right nearby.
– It is the competition that “forces” them. They will not let the competitors win during opening hours. Although I think it would have been more profitable if everyone closed at 21 instead of 23, says Foros.
NHH professor Tor Wallin Andreassen believes, like his colleague Foros, that it is smart of Coop to have the same opening hours as the competitors.
– It is natural to match Kiwi and Rema. If not, Extra makes it harder for himself, he tells Nettavisen.
He points out that extended opening hours can be positive for some customer groups.
– It increases the flexibility of, for example, families with children who are often pressed for time. When they can shop in the evening, it provides a significant relief in everyday life, he says.
At the same time, the NHH professor believes that it is important to have a good process with the union.
– They must understand that it is good for the employer, but at the same time it is important to find solutions that make it livable for employees – especially those who have children, he says.
Andreassen also points out that there is technology today that makes it possible to stay open around the clock – without staffing. It already exists several unmanned Extra stores, something Nettavisen has written about before.
– Up to the cooperative teams
The new opening hours have been adopted as chain requirements by the chain board, which consists of managing directors from the 11 largest cooperatives. Kristiansen points out, however, that it is possible to apply for a local dispensation.
– It is up to the cooperatives whether it makes sense to extend the opening hours where they run a shop or not. But those who do not want it, must apply for a dispensation, he says.
– What does it take for the cooperative teams to receive a dispensation, if they do not want to extend the opening hours?
– That there is no local basis for extending the opening hours for competition reasons, or that it is not practically possible by the store, for example, being located in a center.
– It costs money to extend the opening hours, so we do not do this if we do not think there is a basis for it, Kristiansen points out.
Kristiansen denies that Coop has not followed the “rules of the game”.
– The cooperative teams own the stores and have personnel responsibility. Therefore, it is the management of each individual cooperative that will conduct discussion meetings with the shop stewards. They must have done the same in this case, he says.
Kristiansen says that he can not answer for what has been done and not done in each individual cooperative, for example Sørvest.
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