Workers at Lithuanian grocery chain Iki staged a protest outside the German embassy in Vilnius last week, over staff layoffs.
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It is understood the embassy was targeted because the workers union said Iki is “owned by capital from their country”.
Iki is operated by UAB Palink, which is 80%-owned by pan-European buying alliance Coopernic, whose members include German retail giant REWE Group and Belgium’s Colruyt.
Palink said it is attempting to communicate with the trade union with monthly meetings and that the picket was organised only to “defend the interests of a single redundancy”.
“We are always talking about the questions they have, but if their members are penalised for serious work disciplinary cases, every time the union uses a threatening tone,” Iki said.
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By GlobalData“This time a picket was organised just after the decision to fire one employee, a trade union member for serious violation of labour discipline. UAB Palink is always trying to give the best quality for its customers, therefore we invest in the education of the employees and their skills permanently.”
Iki stated that the salaries of its employees were not decreased during the economic crisis, and that they can receive bonuses from motivational programmes.
“The rotation of employees is less then 5%,” the retailer said. “Therefore we ensure that the trade union accusations are untrue.”
