Serious allegations for the Biedronka network. UOKiK detected collusion on the labor market
The allegations were made to the owner of the Biedronka network and 32 transport companies, as well as eight managers and owners of companies who could be directly responsible for agreement limiting competition.
The case according to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) is serious. Transport companies that support the Biedronka chain of stores have agreed that they would not allow their drivers to change work, and the trade network made sure that this would happen.
– We suspect that transport companies and Jeronimo Martins Polska have concluded an agreement, which aims to limit the possibility of passing drivers between transport companies serving the Biedronki distribution centers. Thus, entrepreneurs could want to avoid mutual “buying” employees. Such action is not only incompatible with the law of competition protection, but also inadmissible in the human dimension. Everyone should have the right to freely choose and change the workplace – explains Tomasz Chróstny, president of UOKiK.
Bat for drivers is the cause of Biedronka’s troubles
How did Jeronimo Martins coordinate the agreement? By blocking admission to their area, drivers who wanted to change their jobs.
According to the office, entrepreneurs could determine that if the drivers previously employed by the carrier serving the Distribution Center Biedronki wanted to employ in another transport company, they could not provide work for the new employer for a certain period (usually for three months).
From the perspective of transport companies, such practice minimized the risk of losing an employee to a competitor, but drivers would reduce professional mobility and prospects for increasing remuneration – explains UOKiK.
The office is of the opinion that the agreements about non-performance about employees, or “no-pachach agreeents”, are legally prohibited because they have a large impact on the amount of remuneration offered to employees.
They can lead to the fact that employee salaries are lower or do not grow as much as in a situation if there was no such collusion.
According to UOKiK, the reason why drivers working for the Biedronka chain of stores most often wanted to change the employer was the lack of increases.
A financial penalty of up to 10 percent is in charge of participating in the agreement limiting competition. entrepreneur’s turnover. The managers responsible for the collusion are in turn threatened with a fine of up to PLN 2 million.
