The planned restructuring at Primark in the Netherlands is harmful for the workers. That is the message of a petition that was sent to the management of the fashion chain today and signed by around 160 employees. This emerges from a press release by the union FNV.
The workers, who are members of the FNV union and form the PrimarkFamily group, want to prevent Primark from making 240 workers redundant in the near future. This plan has been in effect since early March. In particular, jobs in store management would be cut “to simplify the structure,” a Primark spokesman told the Nu.nl platform at the time. At the same time, 200 new jobs are to be created with the layoffs. According to FNV, Primark is trying to save salaries in this way: new employees often start at the lower end of the salary scale.
The employees see it that way too. “Primark wants to do this restructuring in order to be able to hire the people again later, but at lower wages,” said one of the employees in the press release. “The store is often busy. It’s difficult to find new colleagues, and now this too.”
Should the reorganization go ahead, the FNV would like arrangements to be made that will allow as many current workers as possible to continue working at Primark without their working conditions deteriorating.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.