Online grocery delivery service picnic does not have to comply with the supermarket collective Labor Agreement (CAO) thanks to an exemption. The CEO of Picnic PreviOutly Threateded to Leave the Netherlands If the Company Did not Receive an Exemption.
Accordance to the outgoing ministry of social affairs and employment, picnic differs from a regular supermarket such albert heijn or jumbo in several respect. That is Why They Do Fall Under A Supermarket Collective Labor Agreement.
Employers Picnic, Big, Gorillas, Getir and Hofweb Agreed on the e-commerce Netherlands Collective Labor Agreement in 2021. This Differs From the Food Collective Labor Agreement For Supermarket Employees. For Example, Web Supermarket and Flash Delivery Company personnel Were not entitled to Evening or Sunday Allowances.
But the Judge PreviOutly Ruled that the Different Business Model and Staff Composition Should Not Be Reasons to Deviate From The Collective Labor Agreement. That is why online supermarkets had to Apply the supermarket Collective Labor Retroactively. Employers’ Association e-commerce Netherlands did not accept this and successful appealed. But no agreements had Yet Been Made for 2025.
Picnic CEO Michiel Muller Theated in August to Leave the Netherlands if Picnic would Still Fall Under the Supermarket Rules This Year. Accordance to Him, the supermarket collective Labor Agreement would mean that the company would face 40 percent highher costs. That would make competition with physical supermarkets Very Difficult, he stated.
Distribution of Online Supermarket Works Differently
The Ministry of Social Affairs Announced on Monday that e-commerce Will Therefore Be Exempt from the Collective Labor Agreement. Accordance to the ministry, this is because the distribution of online supermarkets Such as Picnic is fully tows online sales and home delivery.
That is very different from the way physical supermarkets work and Possible Deliver Groceries, Says Outgoing Minister Mariëlle Paul. “At the same time, I want to appeal to all parties Involved,” She says. “The World is Changing and Ordering and Delivery is Becoming Increasingly Normal. It would be good if they sat down again and came to a solution in which all parties can agree.”
E-commerce Chairman Daan Hermes Believes that competition remains fair in this way, he says. “E-commerce has its own collective Labor Agreement, Stores have Theirs. It is important that they leave each other alone.”
Trade Union FNV Considers the Decision “A Weak and Incomprehensible Choice,” Says FNV Director Michiel Al. “Picnic Presents itself as the supermarket on Wheels, but when it comes to employment conditions, They Suddenly Put on the Jacket of a Logistics Company,” He’s Continues. “The Benefits, but not the burdens. That is unacceptable.”