Rights of Filling Team Employees: Discover Your Claims

Questioner

I have been working as a stocking crew member at a supermarket for a number of years now. During my career, I have had the feeling that things are not entirely fair. That is why I would like to ask for advice on a number of matters. I am particularly curious about what we, as stocking crew members, are entitled to and should have been entitled to. For example, a number of colleagues (with a permanent contract) have been called to the office by the boss with the request to leave. In most cases, these are graduates or dropouts, who he finds too expensive. When the employee indicates that he does not want to agree to this, restrictions are imposed. For example, from now on someone is no longer allowed to work after 22:00, to prevent him from receiving a 50% allowance (while he always did this before). In addition, they are limited to the minimum number of hours according to the contract, while they have worked a fixed pattern of hours for years. Is this allowed? In some cases, it is agreed under pressure during a verbal conversation that the employee will have found another job by a certain date and will stop working here. Another topic is the 50% surcharge after 22:00. As a filling crew member, we start at 17:00 - 18:00 and in most cases we stop between 22:00 and 23:00. For 3 months now we have been receiving a 50% surcharge from 22:00. We are wondering whether we were not entitled to this surcharge earlier, and whether this is even from 22:00 and not earlier. If it turns out that we were entitled to this earlier, is this possible retroactively if we work on this? Recently, a number of permanent employees (including me) received a letter in which they were placed back in scale A, according to agreement with the boss, while they were previously in B. They receive the difference as an administrative allowance in their salary. However, the annual salary increase or other collective labor agreements are deducted from the allowance. In short, we are being brought down to the minimum wage of scale A. Is this allowed? Personally, I don't think so because the letter comes across more as a confirmation after an agreement conversation. It was also more pushed under our noses with the comment "can you quickly sign this, then you can continue working". Finally, are the scale and the step also linked to the number of working years? We have the feeling that some employees do not go up in scale or step while they are entitled to this?

Lawyer

Before June 2016, you claimed 150% of your salary on Monday – Friday between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. You cannot claim this if you currently work 22 hours a week. This is based on the Supermarket collective labor agreement. You will hear from me.

Lawyer

The course of events indeed raises questions. What you and your colleagues are entitled to will have to be assessed on the basis of, among other things, the law, an applicable collective labor agreement and the individual agreements that have been made. In addition, attention must be paid to 'acquired employment conditions'; if work has been carried out for a considerable period of time in accordance with certain agreements, it may be assumed under certain circumstances that these are acquired rights that may not simply be taken away or returned. If it turns out that you were previously entitled to certain amounts, such as allowances, you can in most cases claim them and thus still claim the amount that you should have received, from the employer and if necessary from the subdistrict court (file a wage claim). There is also a statutory increase of up to 50% on this amount and statutory interest. I would be happy to help you with this!

Lawyer

The step is mainly linked to age. Based on the collective labor agreement, you will periodically receive higher wages.