Zara store relocation: A ploy to get rid of longtime employees?

The group is silent

Created: 02/26/2022, 21:54

By: Stefan Aigner

The Zara store on Neupfarrplatz in Regensburg is moving - 35 employees will lose their jobs as a result, even though a new branch is opening very close by.

© Martin Oswald

It sounded harmless to the staff at Zara in Regensburg.

The branch is moving.

But the fashion group uses a trick to get rid of long-term employees.

Regensburg - After the announced closure of the Zara branch in the old town of Regensburg, around 35 employees there fear for their jobs.

Initially, it was said that the Spanish fashion chain store would move from Neupfarrplatz to the arcade shopping center.

But in the legal sense, this is not a move.

In fact, the longstanding branch in the old town will be closed and a new branch opened in the arcades.

For the previous employees, this difference is existential.

They are not moving, as initially assumed, but are losing their jobs due to the closure of the company.

Zara employees in Regensburg shocked: "I assumed that we would move with them."

"Until recently, I assumed that we would move at the end of the year," one of those affected tells us.

But at the beginning of February she and her colleagues were told that this was not the case.

The business in the arcades is different, a new branch.

It was said that she could apply there.

However, under new conditions – and that it will then be hired is far from certain.

This action by Zara also means the end for the works council, which still exists at Neupfarrplatz.

At most, he is still at the table during the negotiations on a social plan for the previous employees.

The new branch starts without a works council.

Regensburg: Close a branch, open a new one - a trick to get rid of better paid staff?

This approach by the Spanish Intitex group, operator of the fast fashion chain, apparently has method.

In the wake of the corona pandemic, the listed company announced that it would close 1,200 branches worldwide.

It is said that the intention is to focus more on online trading.

Fewer but larger shops should also function as a kind of distribution center - a concept for which one can also plan with more unskilled and therefore poorly paid staff.

Against this background, the action in Regensburg is anything but surprising for André Scheer, ver.di trade union secretary in the Federal Department of Trade.

In Essen, for example, you have exactly the same case - closure of one branch, opening of another branch in the shopping center.

There are already indications of similar Zara plans in other cities.

There is hardly any information for or discussions with the employees from the employer side.

"They are presented with a fait accompli."

Not an isolated case in Regensburg: trade union ver.di comments on the Zara method

This is also confirmed by our conversation partner from Regensburg.

"We don't even have a date on when exactly it should be closed." This is actually important information that would be important in the negotiations on a social plan and in general for the future career planning of employees.

You also don't learn anything about the chances of a possible job in the new business.

"It just sounded like we should really get involved - then maybe it could work."

Union secretary Scheer considers the fear that at most a few of the current employees will be taken on to be absolutely justified.

The group is apparently trying to save money with this approach – at the expense of the employees.

Zara is bound by collective agreements, but according to Scheer: "If I hire someone with less professional experience, who may still be unskilled, I have to pay less." Another effect of opening a new branch: family-friendly working conditions and achievements that long-term employees like have fought for at Neupfarrplatz could be eliminated or worsened.

Closing of the Zara branch in Regensburg in the old town: the Spanish operator group is silent

Previous branch closures have also shown that Zara then relies on getting rid of long-standing employees.

For example, when Zara closed one of its branches in Berlin in March 2019, according to the trade union ver.di, only six out of 73 employees received an offer to work in another branch in the capital - although at the same time other branches in the capital had advertised a lot were looking for staff.

Instead, 30 other employees of the closed shop received the hardly acceptable offer to switch to a branch in Hamburg or other shops distributed throughout Germany.

There were similar cases in Leipzig and in Viernheim in Hesse, but also in Munich.

How exactly it should work at all with a takeover of the current employees in the new Regensburg branch in the arcades is questionable anyway.

So far, there has always been talk that the old town shop should close at the end of this year.

According to information from our editorial team that has not yet been officially confirmed, the reopening of the arcade branch is already planned for October - too late for the previous employees, some of whom have worked for Zara for more than 15 years.

The company has not yet answered a query from our editorial team to Zara Germany about the further planned procedure in Regensburg, in particular about the future of the current employees.

By the way: Our brand new Regensburg newsletter regularly informs you about all the important stories from the world cultural heritage city and the Upper Palatinate.

Sign up here.