Pracujesz na umowie śmieciowej? Możemy pomóc!
W dniu 5 października ZSP zorganizowało pikietę pod sklepem Żabka prowadzonym przez ajentkę Anastazję K. przy ul. Malczewskiego 85 w Gdańsku. Pikieta dotyczyła sytuacji 17-letniego studenta, który był nielegalnie zatrudniony w sklepie. Pracował bez umowy i dopiero po pewnym czasie szef zdecydował się na spisanie umowy.
To powszechna praktyka, którą niektórzy szefowie stosują, aby później ukryć fakt, że nie zawarli umowy przed rozpoczęciem pracy. Pracownik, który miał wówczas 16 lat, przepracował tylko półtora miesiąca, ale nie dostał całej należnej mu zapłaty. Innym problemem była sprzedaż alkoholu i papierosów, czego nieletni nie mogą robić.
Skontaktowaliśmy się z szefową i według naszych obliczeń powinna ona zapłacić 2600 zł, które jest winna pracownikowi. Szefowa stwierdziła, że skoro Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy dokonała inspekcji, a grzywna za stwierdzone nieprawidłowości została zapłacona, to wszystko jest w porządku.
Oczywiście PIP nakłada drobne grzywny, ale nie przejmuje się tym, żeby pracownicy dostali zapłatę. Szefową przyznała, że jest winna pieniądze, ale tylko w kwocie 1655 zł. Mimo to odmówiła zapłaty nawet tych pieniędzy.
On October 5, ZSP held a picket at a Zabka convenience store at Malczewskiego St. 85 in Gdansk. A worker from that store was illegally employed and not paid all his money. The worker is a 17-year-old high school student who came to Poland from Ukraine due to the war and started work at 16 years old. He was working without a contract; only later, the Zabka agent drew one up. According to our calculations, he was owed 2600 zloties. In a discussion with the agent (owner of the store), she claimed that since she paid a fine imposed by the State Labor Inspectorate „what did we want”? Later she admitted that she owed the worker money, but claimed that the amount only totals 1655 zloties.
We asked the boss to pay the money to the worker. Instead, she refused to talk to us during the picket and hired a lawyer who tried to disturb the protest by acting agressively towards the picketers, filming them and screaming that we are „liars” and „have no proof”. (Except for the documents and the admission of the boss that she owes money, although less than we calculated.) We were quite shocked by the behaviour of somebody claiming to be a lawyer and on checking who she was, we were astounded to find out that for the last 20 years, she has been the Chairperson of an Anti-Mobbing Association, claiming to fight against mobbing in the workplace. It was even more astounding for this that this person was basically calling the victim of wage theft a liar in a public space but refused to even listen to a word that person had to say and completely ignored him.
Związek Syndykalistów Polski – Związek Wielobranżowy Warszawa pragnie zwrócić uwagę na dwa kolejne przypadki kradzieży wynagrodzeń, które miały miejsce w sklepach sieci Żabka, tym razem w Otwocku i w Józefowie. Ajentka „Usługi Finansowe Anna Umięcka” prowadziła dwa sklepy: w Otwocku przy ul. Powstańców Warszawy 3 oraz w Józefowie przy ulicy Sikorskiego 65C. Ajentka nie zapłaciła 13 osobom pensji: zaległości sięgnęły nawet 2 miesięcy.
Gdy pracownice czekały na wypłatę, ajentka bez ostrzeżenia zamknęła sklepy. Wiele produktów zostało wywiezionych ze sklepów. Pracownice były w sklepie w niedzielę, ale w nocy z niedzieli na poniedziałek zabrano kamery monitoringu, dokumenty, gotówkę, drogi alkohol i papierosy.
Pracownice od tego czasu starają się odzyskać swoje pensję. Już w sierpniu pracownice ze sklepu podjęły kontakt ze Związkiem Syndykalistów Polski. Właścicielka sklepu, pani Anna odpowiedziała pracownicom, że wypłaci pensje 10 sierpnia .Niestety tylko kilka osób dostało niepełną kwotę, a większość nie dostała nic.
W sierpniu, jedna z pracownic wysłała zawiadomienie do Prokuratury o możliwości popełnienia przestępstwa. Policzyła, że łączna kwota zaległych pensji może być około 30 tys. zł. Według naszych oszacowań, faktyczna kwota może być o wiele wyższa. Wiele pracownic pracowało bez umów, co zapewne oznacza, że Usługi Finansowe Anna Umięcka nie płaciły ani podatków, ani ZUSu.
The ZSP has been in conflict with quite a number of Zabka convenience stores. Many of the franchise's agents engage in abusive labor practices and sometimes do not pay workers what they have been owed. ZSP has been successful in helping workers recover stolen wages and other matters concerning the chain.
Recently workers from two Zabka stores (with the same owner) were not paid. Some workers tried to notify authorities but of course they did nothing. This situation concerned 13 people in the two stores. When we investigated it turned out not only did some workers not get paid for two months but also some of them had no contract at all, were illegally employed, had no social security contributions made, etc. It took a little while to decide on what action to take because some workers were hesitant, preferring perhaps to wait for authorities: a really bad mistake from our experience. Finally we decided that we would take action with only a few of the workers but the two shops had been close so it was decided that we would go to the home of the owner. Having visited this location beforehand, neighbours described how the woman was seen fleeing a couple of days earlier. It was not clear whether she escaped or would be back. It appeared that she might have decided to run away and not pay anybody.
This reminds us of a couple of other situations we have seen as we had once boss run off to Spain and another to the US. However, in a very astounding coincidence, on the same week that the situation with the Zabka owner occured, we found out that the workers whose boss had ran away to America some years ago, finally got paid!
When the boss ran away to America, we did our best to alert people in that country by various means. We also for some time kept writing about it on our media and forums in Poland. Some time ago, this creep has his lawyer write us a threatening letter demanding we removing references to him but we refused, pointing out that he was in fact a criminal and we had a duty to warn workers or potential business partners against him. Finally, we found out that the missing boss finally made workers – something we did not really expect at that point. It just goes to show that it is worth pursuing conflicts even if it starts to look very difficult to accomplish your aims.
This is that Zabka bosses and run but will not be able to hide forever! We will make sure this information follows the boss forever, until she pays up what is owed!
Związek Syndykalistów Polski - Związek Wielobranżowy Warszawa przeprowadził serię protestów pod sklepem Żabki na ul. Puławskiej 116 w Warszawie. Ajent sklepu okradł z pensji dwójkę byłych pracowników. W wyniku protestów, centrala Żabki wypowiedziała umowę z ajentem.
Poszkodowanym był chłopak, którego trudna sytuacja rodzinna zmusiła do podjęcia pracy w wieku 17 lat. Ajent wykorzystywał go do pracy na czarno, za stawkę poniżej minimalnej, bez przerw dobowych i tygodniowych, delegował do zadań i organizował pracę w sposób, w który nie wolno zatrudniać nieletnich, zmuszał do nieodpłatnych nadgodzin dalece przekraczających wymiarem dopuszczalne w kodeksie pracy, by ostatecznie nie zapłacić jemu i jego osobie partnerskiej łącznie prawie 30 tysięcy złotych. Jakby tego było mało, w odwecie za domaganie się przez niego wypłaty, pobił go i publicznie znieważał.
Przestępcy spod szyldu Żabki z reguły na cel obierają właśnie osoby najbardziej dotknięte przez nierówności społeczne, osoby chore, samotne matki, nieletnich, osoby w kryzysie mieszkaniowym czy osoby queerowe. Państwo nie broni tych osób przed popadnięciem w nędzę i nie interesuje się, gdy ich desperację wykorzystują bezwzględni przedsiębiorcy. Solidarność to jedyna skuteczna forma obrony, która daje szansę na sprawiedliwość.
Zabka is a chain of convenience stores with over 9000 shops in Poland and shops in the Czech Republic, making it one of the largest convenience store chains in Europe and a major employer in Poland. Unfortunately, it seems like many Zabka franchisees have absolutely no regard for workers' rights and are wage thieves. ZSP has already held numerous successful actions against these stores throughout Poland.
The situation at the Zabka shop on Pulawska St. 116 was particularly heinous for us. The action concerned two workers who were owed over 30,000 zloties (about 7400 euros) from the thieving boss but after the protest, another former worker contacted us and wants to join. The boss did not legally employ them, providing no contract and circumventing all statutory requirements. They had to work too many overtime hours including illegally on Sunday. The workers are underage teenagers who were in a desperate life situation and didn't know what to do. To make matters even worse, before leaving work, when one of the workers confronted the boss, he beat him.
We sent a demand letter and organized a picket. Just before the protest started, the owner ran away. We entered the shop to demand to talk to the owner, but he was not to be found there. The protest lasted over one hour and drew a lot of sympathetic responses from neighbors. Since the owner does not want to face us, we will be returning twice next week and we will keep going until everything is paid.
In the meantime, we note the non-reaction of the Zabka company to the numerous incidents that happen in their franchises. Although the franchise agreements specify numerous things that franchisees must do, ranging from the look of the shops to the way things are put on the shelves, apparently respecting workers is not one of them.
On May 28, ZSP held a picket at another Zabka convenience store, this time at Motycka St. 23 in Warsaw. In this store, they had people working without a contract, for less than the minimum wage. One worker kept asking about a contract and finally quit, but then found out that the owner didn't even want to pay her anything. We wrote a letter to them demanding the salary owed at the legal minimum wage. Of course we don't want to ever hear again of this kind of exploitation at this shop.
Within a couple of days, the owner paid some money to the worker, but not the full amount. We went to the shop to find the owner not the least bit concerned about the crimes he committed or making sure that people who work there are legally employed. We are sending another demand letter and picket and are hoping the full amount be paid. In the meanwhile, we informed local residents about the situation in this shop and encourage them to avoid shopping there as long as this kind of practice exists.
We will keep reporting cases of abuse in this convenience store chain and taking action against wage thieves.
28 maja odbyła się pikieta pod sklepem Żabki przy ulicy Motyckiej 23 na Targówku w Warszawie.
W tym sklepie zatrudniali pracowników bez umowy i za stawkę poniżej stawki minimalnej. Jedna z pracownic stale upominała się o umowę, ale gdy jej nie otrzymała, postanowiła nie pracować więcej w takich warunkach. Ajent Żabki, firma Sebastian Knapiuk, odmówił zapłaty wynagrodzenia.
Aktualizacja: pensja została w pełni wypłacona dzień po zakończeniu protestu!
Napisaliśmy list do ajenta z wezwaniem do zapłaty. Ajent zapłacił pewną kwotę, która była niższa, niż obowiązująca minimalna stawka godzinowa za przepracowane godziny. Dlate zorganizowaliśmy pikietę. Przypomnieliśmy, że w Polsce obowiązuje minimalne wynagrodzenie i że trzeba je płacić. Dodaliśmy, że jeżeli ajent nie zamierza płacić nawet tyle, to niech zamknie swój biznes, a ludzie lepiej niech się nie zatrudniają u takiego złodzieja pensji.
Wysyłamy teraz kolejne żądanie zapłaty, domagając się wypłaty zgodnej z prawem stawki minimalnej. Za tydzień planujemy kolejną pikietę pod tym sklepem.
Stop złodziejstwu!
Żabka, nie ujdzie ci to płazem!
On Sunday April 16, the ZSP Multi-branch Union picketed at two Zabka convenience stores in Warsaw. The first one was at Hemara St. where we went for the first time and the second one at Skrzynieckiego St., where we returned.
During the picket at Skrzynieckiego St., one worker was paid but unfortunately, the second worker was not able to come and did not. After the picket at Hemara St., we learned that a second worker was not paid there. This is very common; if an employer doesn't pay one worker, he or she probably has also cheated somebody else. In this situation, the worker, who explained she is a single mother and cannot pay her bills because of this situation, received a lot of support from the local residents. The Zabka agent (franchisee) paid both of the workers.
This just shows again that it pays to take action. Unfortunately, there are a lot more people out there that are cheated but who we don't have contact with.
On May Day, we will be conducting an informational event in Warsaw where we will try to inform precarious workers of their rights and encourage them to organize. We will be stopping at multiple Zabka stores. Many people in the area of our office have worked in Zabka or other convenience stores at one time or another and some of the stores are using workers illegally, without contracts or proper payment and benefits. We will continue to fight this exploitation on May Day and after!
On March 19, ZSP Warsaw union held two pickets at two different Zabka stores. Zabka is the largest chain in Poland with almost 9000 shops run by franchise. It is also present in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and is owned by CVC Capital Partners private equity firm. As the company does not care about the working conditions in its shops, many of the shops employ people without giving them contracts, pay them under the table and routinely steal their wages.
The first picket was a shop on ul. Skrzynieckiego. There, two workers were robbed of their wages. One was employed on a contract, the other was never given a contract at all. The workers calculated what they were owed and we sent this information by email. When we delivered a demand letter in person, the agent tore it up. We understand that she believes that she can get away with wage theft, however her actions just make us more determined to inform people about the situation there and keep fighting for the money owed.
The second picket was in Minsk Mazowiecki, near Warsaw. In this situation, the woman who originally wanted to fight actually received her money the day after we announced the picket. One success. However, a woman we know then contacted us that she had also worked there and had her wages stolen. This is a common situation that the thieving bosses usually have more than 1 victim. We went and demanded the money but instead of paying, the agent locked the store. Later she made a false alarm call to the police saying that we were “attacking her”. As we know, the police can protect such thieves but we think this time they were not fooled about what had happened. This is because already many people in Poland know that there are many horrible Zabka agents who rob people's salary.
While this situation continues we will continue to inform the public about what is happening and ask for support of the workers by not patronizing the thieving shops. ZSP has already successfully held numerous actions in and around Warsaw and succeeded in helping more than a dozen people get the money they were owed.
