Migros has made arrangements to lay off pregnant women.Image: Shutterstock/keystone/watson
The orange giant must reduce its costs and has embarked on major cuts. Pregnant women and those on maternity leave are affected.
Pascal Michel / ch media
Migros is carrying out a radical restructuring. In order to create “simplified processes, lean structures and clear roles”, the new supermarket manager Peter Diethelm has eliminated, for the moment, 150 full-time positions. It is mainly the marketing employees at the Limmatplatz site in Zurich who are affected.
In addition to these layoffs, there are approximately 100 contract modifications. This means that the employees concerned can continue to work for the Migros supermarket subsidiary, but in a new role – possibly at a reduced employment rate or salary.
Dismissal after end of maternity leave
As we learned, the savings also affect at least three employees who will soon have a child and who are therefore under the protection of their maternity status, in theory visibly. In fact, they were informed on Tuesday that they would receive their dismissal letter at the end of the legal deadline. Migros confirms the current procedure:
“Due to the considerable reduction in staff numbers, pregnant women and women on maternity leave are unfortunately also affected. Blocking periods with protection against dismissal apply to them. All those affected also receive benefits under the social plan.”
Among employees, this “social coldness”, someone comments, arouses incomprehension. Especially since Migros also likes to present itself as a social employer. Legally, it is possible to dismiss a future mother or a woman on maternity leave at the end of the legal period of 16 weeks. Migros sends redundancies to women after 18 weeks, thus adding two weeks to the legal deadline. The women concerned then receive their dismissal letter at home.
Migros is not the only employer to take a hard line during restructuring. The Sunrise telecommunications group announced in the spring a collective layoff of around 170 employees, including women on maternity leave. They had been “pre-informed” that their position would be eliminated following a reorganization and that they would be made redundant at the end of the blocking period. Information relayed at the time by Inside Paradeplatz.
Emails that create confusion
There is also discontent at Migros headquarters over the way in which the layoffs were communicated. By videoconference, management explained to staff on Tuesday morning that it would inform the people concerned by email between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. This email did not, however, specify whether it was a dismissal or a modification of contract. The 150 Migros employees only received this information during a personal interview. In some cases, these discussions did not take place until Thursday afternoon.
So, many were hoping to continue working for the retailer in a new role, but were disappointed. “Many are devastated. Some broke down crying when they received their dismissal letter.says an insider.
Frustration also at Migusto
The online culinary program Migusto is also affected, as we have just learned. This was only launched in 2017, with its own magazine, and was intended to be aimed at “ambitious amateur cooks as well as family cooks on a small budget”. The platform now faces an uncertain future. According to our information
, the six recipe authors must leave. Asked about the future of Migusto, Migros spokesperson Marcel Schlatter is not yet able to say what it is. “Conversations with the employees concerned are still partially underway.” And the new organizational charts are only expected in the coming days.
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(Translated and adapted by Chiara Lecca)
