At the end of September, HOK-Elanto started change negotiations for 513 restaurant workers. The workers and the general steward are dismayed.
HOK-Elanto Liiketoiminta Oy has started change negotiations in the restaurant industry at the end of September.
The change negotiations concern a total of 513 people working in HOK-Elanto’s restaurants. The negotiations include shift supervisors and employees, i.e., in practice, cooks, waiters and shift managers.
According to HOK-Elanto, the challenges of the restaurant industry are behind the change negotiations.
– The recession, consumer uncertainty, the increase in remote working, and the decrease in tourists have weakened the sales of the restaurant industry. The general rise in cost levels and the polarization of sales to weekends and seasons have also challenged the result, HOK-Elanto explains in the press release.
Dark moods
A restaurant worker involved in change negotiations tells Iltalehte that the atmosphere among the staff is gloomy.
– Yes, it can be seen. Work motivation has decreased, and there are quite a lot of sick leaves. The employees are really at the end of this, he says.
The employee’s identity and workplace are known to Iltalehti, but he appears in the story anonymously to protect his privacy.
Chefs, kitchen managers, restaurant managers, restaurant managers and business idea managers have been left out of the change negotiations. The employee describes the limitation as ridiculous.
– I don’t understand that the people who physically make money for the company are being part-time or laid off, but the people sitting in the office do not participate in the cost-saving measures in any way. Absolutely absurd.
Hard measures are being planned
According to HOK-Elanto, the plan, if implemented, may lead to the part-time, termination of the current employment contract of a maximum of 140 persons involved in the negotiations, or to the unilateral change of an essential condition of the employment relationship.
According to the employee interviewed by Iltalehti, the employer has been unconditional in the negotiations.
– The employer rejects all proposals from the employees.
– It has been proposed, for example, to shorten working hours, but in such a way that the salary remains the same. It has also been suggested that the employees do part of the hours in HOK-Elanto’s stores and part in restaurants. Neither of these will do.
According to the employee, the restaurants are currently planning drastic industrial action. However, they have not been decided yet.
– This cannot continue unilaterally. The employer does not listen at all to what the employees want. We don’t understand why change negotiations are held if there is nothing to negotiate.
– Then it is appropriate to think about how to run the restaurant if there are no employees.
The chief steward commented
Chief steward of HOK-Elanto’s restaurant industry Piia Kuusniemi sees change negotiations as a serious matter for the entire restaurant industry.
– This is a hard blow. Employees have already been let go and will continue to go. During the Corona period, many professionals left us. Now you could say that we are the last ones to leave, says Kuusniemi.
– This is really short-sighted. We can’t know if there will be a labor shortage in the next moment, he continues.
According to Kuusniemi, the negotiations are planned to end tentatively on November 11.
– We certainly won’t have very happy customer service staff in the little Christmas shop after this, he says.
Structural change
According to Kuusniemi, the employer’s goal is to part-time or fire almost all full-time employees. Most of HOK-Elanto’s employees are full-time.
– The employer’s clear goal is to make a structural change in the staff. They have refused all our proposals in negotiations.
HOK-Elanto is a cooperative and not, for example, a listed company. That’s why Kuusniemi thinks it’s special that the negotiations are taking place “with pictures of the euro in their eyes”.
– Decisions should be made based on value choices. The industry makes a long minus, but our store, for example, makes a long plus. Industries could help each other in many ways and in the spirit of the cooperative movement.
According to the chief shop steward, there is now a second round of change negotiations. The six weeks prescribed by law will be completed on November 11.
– It is not yet known when the decisions will be made. We haven’t been told about it.
HOK-Elanto’s biggest restaurant chains include Rosso, Chico’s and Coffee House. In addition, the cooperative includes, among others, the Helsinki restaurants Zetor, Kappeli, Vltava, Amarillo and the restaurant world of Jumbo in Vantaa.
Kappeli, located on the Esplanade, is one of HOK-Elantto’s best-known restaurants. Tiina Somerpuro
#Rosso #Chicos #Amarillo.. #HOKElanto #dropped #big #bomb #employees #stunned
