Supermarket workers on the frontline of coronavirus battle

Supermarket workers on the frontline of coronavirus battle

Retail workers in the food sector face unfamiliar challenges.

By ZOSIA WANAT AND PAOLA TAMMA 3/19/20, 6:55 PM CET Updated 3/22/20, 7:09 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/supermarket-workers-on-the-frontline-of-corona-battle/

Employees of a supermarket disinfects a trolley in Namur, Belgium | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

When Giovanni took a job stocking shelves in a supermarket in Bologna, Italy, he didn't expect to one day be on the frontline of a global crisis.

But now he comes face to face with potential threats each day in the form of customers who could be sick, and says his employer hasn’t properly equipped him to fight the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

“Plexiglass barriers for cashiers were only mounted [on Sunday] and we had to get the gloves ourselves,” said Giovanni, who asked to not use his real name due to fears of losing his job with Conad, one of Italy's biggest cooperative chains. He added that workers had to request masks from their employers. “It is their duty to defend us."

European supermarket workers, like Giovanni, have found themselves adjusting from a more functional role to a strategic one necessary for national survival as governments try to contain a disease that has infected tens of thousands across the Continent, which has become the new global epicenter. In Italy alone, more than 3,000 people have died, surpassing China's official death toll on Thursday.

Grocery stores are among the only shops allowed to stay open in European countries that have gone under lockdown, aside from pharmacies, since they're vital to feed the population amid uncertain times.

In many countries, workers described similar frustrations: trade unions say supermarket employees lack necessary sanitary protections and work overtime.

This new role for supermarket workers on the frontlines comes with many unfamiliar challenges and vulnerabilities. Giovanni and others who spoke to POLITICO say supermarket workers feel unprepared, unprotected and too overworked to deal with it.

Now countries and those companies are scrambling to respond.

Supermarkets’ duty of care

In many countries, workers described similar frustrations: trade unions say supermarket employees lack necessary sanitary protections and work overtime.

Supermarkets say they’re doing everything they can. “We have taken a wide range of steps to support public authorities in seeking to minimize the risk of infection to customers and to our own staff,” EuroCommerce, a trade body, said in a statement.

A cashier in Strasbourg, eastern France | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

Neil McMillan, the group's director of political affairs and trade, said that, for example, shops have been limiting the number of people in stores at one time, asking customers to pay with contactless cards instead of cash, installing additional food-product scanners, making cashiers wash their hands regularly, as well as cleaning and disinfecting areas more often than usual. Supermarkets also often provide their employees with masks, gloves and sanitary gel — sometimes even, as Giovanni mentioned, a plexiglass shield to separate workers from shoppers.

“Quite a lot of our companies have advertisements … saying: ‘Dear customers, do realize how much extra work all of this has cost to our staff’.' A lot of staff have just canceled their holidays, or have actually worked overtime in order to make sure that the shelves get filled,” McMillan added.

Some country leaders have taken note of the struggle. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a point to thank supermarket workers in a national address Wednesday. “Those who sit at supermarket cash registers or restock shelves are doing one of the hardest jobs there is right now,” she said, adding: “Thank you for being there for your fellow citizens and literally keeping the store going.”

But workers say it’s not enough. The protections the supermarkets have promised “in France, it’s just not true,” said Amar Lagha, secretary-general of French trade union Fédération CGT. “There are no masks, there are no gloves. Only in the last few days, we started to receive sanitary gels."

“We wrote to the government that if there are not enough masks to give to the workers, they’ll just have to stop showing up to work to protect themselves ... We're not going to sacrifice people, we're not going to use them as cannon fodder,” he added.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire acknowledged Wednesday that “there’s a problem of supermarket workers who demand more protection,” adding: “There is a growing tension in terms of employees … We have to guarantee the sanitary protection of the workers, and we’re going to resolve these tensions."

Alfred Bujara from the Polish Solidarność trade union said retail workers are "terrified."

“The threat is very big," Bujara said. "In Poland, the shock wave of the virus is still to come. We have been convincing supermarket managers that if they don’t protect their workers well, they will simply stop showing up for work and then there will be no one to serve the society."

Solidarność worked with the Polish ministry of development to come up with a new set of sanitary guidelines for supermarkets. Apart from regular provisions on masks and gloves, this includes suggestions that shops shouldn't leave unpacked foods like meat and cheese exposed behind a glass display case, and shouldn’t allow customers to pick and choose free-lying products, like bread or fruit.

Long queues and long hours

Apart from demanding extra sanitary protection, employees also say they have to work overtime. “Instead of decreasing working hours, for instance to close during the weekend, they decided to make us do 12-, 13-hour shifts for consecutive days,” said Giovanni, adding: ”It is no longer a service but only a way to hoard as much money as possible for themselves.”

Conad did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Giovanni said he and his colleagues are working unpaid overtime, afraid their jobs will be on the line if they don’t. “The fear which we feel and for which we remain overtime, even unpaid, is that someone’s job can be cut in a moment of crisis,” he said.

A sign taped to the floor of a supermarket reads: "Please maintain a 1,5 meter distance" in Berlin | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

Italian trade unions are asking to close shops on Sundays and limit opening hours to the daytime. In Italy and elsewhere, some supermarkets have decided to shorten their opening times voluntarily. But in Poland, for example, the government has lifted the Sunday trading ban so that supermarkets can be open seven days a week.

Mari Carmen Barrera, who covers employment and social protection at Spanish trade union UGT, said she was seeing the same situation Giovanni described in Spanish supermarkets.

“It was like this even before [the coronavirus outbreak]. Our labor market is quite precarious, our labor code gives very few rights to the workers,” she said. “At this moment, the situation has become more and more precarious, as we know that it’s going to be a weak moment for employment … It’s clear that the workers are afraid."

Still, Barrera said she has “a little hope” because part of the Spanish government's new €200 billion bailout plan will be spent on workers and fighting unemployment. Other European countries, including Italy and France, have adopted similar provisions.

A bit more respect

But there's one aspect that can’t be changed by new government policies or financial measures: customers.

Despite mandates to stay home, shoppers don't always heed this advice, visiting stores sometimes "three times a day,” Giovanni said.

Customers “want everything immediately and precisely what they want,” he added, even though supermarkets have had problems keeping shelves fully stocked due to high demand and disruptions along the supply chain.

There is “Little respect for everyone in general and too much demand in a time of crisis,” he said.

But on the rare occasion that customers do recognize workers' public service, Giovanni said this gives him strength.

“If civic duty makes people stay at home right now, and if the people who do come in are a little more polite, it would all be much more livable.”

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