Almost a year after the Delhaize supermarket chain announced that 128 of its own shops would be franchised – causing protests from staff and unions – an independent owner has been found for all these supermarkets, the company reported.
Delhaize's announcement on 7 March 2023 that its 128 supermarkets would be privatised led to fierce protests among staff and numerous unions actions, but the chain's management stuck to its position.
Now, the company released a list of the last 21 supermarkets to get a new owner. The acquirers include eight people who already own one or more other Delhaize stores, five are Delhaize employees and four are external candidates. They will undergo a training programme in the coming weeks.
Of the 128 franchised shops, 45 have already officially opened their doors with the new owners at the helm, the company said. Delhaize expects all independent shops to be open by the end of the year.
Unions remain critical
At the 45 shops that are already autonomous, all staff have been given the chance to make the switch "on the same terms they had within Delhaize," Delhaize spokesperson Roel Delkelver told Belga News Agency.
"It is up to the employees themselves to decide whether they want to make that switch. In practice, we see that they have all done so and are also happy at their new employer," he said.
Last week, CEO Frans Muller of parent holding company Ahold Delhaize said the whole operation was starting to yield "encouraging results." Still, the announcement of the plan and the social unrest had a solid impact on earnings.
Trade unions, however, remain critical. Some independent owners are abusing loopholes in the law that will mean that in practice, staff will work on less good pay conditions than actually intended, according to Wilson Wellens of the liberal trade union ACLVB.
Credit: Belga
"I see in Delhaize's list that they have again sold three shops to the same acquirer. That acquirer is going to divide the shops among different companies which means the staff will not be in the right joint committee," Wellens said.
The chains with several stores are covered by a different joint committee (joint committee 202) than the smaller independents (joint committee 202.01). In the latter case, rules apply that are financially less interesting for staff, for example for evening or Sunday work, said Wellens. "Staff are going to feel that."
Wellens also hopes there will soon be clarity for staff at Delhaize's headquarters, where jobs are also disappearing as a result of franchising. Delhaize does not want to give numbers at the moment. "We are doing everything we can to limit the number of forced departures," said Dekelver.
