Employees of stores located in the Médiacité shopping center in Liège were threatened with penalty payments on Friday evening because they closed the shutters at 8 p.m., reported Saturday morning Julien Dejon, permanent CNE for the commerce sector in the province of Liège. He emphasizes that the staff only respected the law. “Night work actually starts at 8 p.m. in Belgium and it is prohibited in the retail sector,” he says.
On Friday evenings, the Médiacité gallery is normally open until 9 p.m. But for several months, a standoff has pitted the unions against the operators of the shopping center, namely the real estate group CBRE. The CNE regularly carries out actions in order, in particular, to enforce the legislation while night work is prohibited in the commercial sector. According to the union, the social inspection even intervened to force stores to close their doors at 8 p.m.
”This Friday evening, a bailiff came accompanied by the police. He brutally accosted the saleswomen, telling them that they did not have the right to close the store at 8 p.m. and then threatened them with a 1,000 euro penalty if they ‘started again’”, Julien Dejon told the Belga agency. “They were mostly very young girls who are just employees of a multinational and who are working the schedule received from their employer”he emphasizes.
According to the CNE, Médiacité appealed to the court of first instance, claiming assault against its freedom to trade. The penalties run until July 7, “it is clearly the start of the sales which is targeted here”, points out the trade unionist.
Médiacité has already found itself under fire on several occasions due to the price of parking and the lack of security in its car parks in particular.
The CBRE real estate group reacts
For its part, the real estate group CBRE justified the intervention of bailiffs. “The right to strike cannot be exercised abusively to the detriment of other rights such as the right to property, freedom of commerce and industry and the right to work. Thus, any obstruction of the access routes to the Médiacité shopping mall and to the stores constitutes an assault infringing these rights and cannot be permitted”the group said.
”It is on this basis that the union actions of the CNE were judged abusive by the court of first instance of Liège which prohibits any person from preventing or making impossible even partially access as well as the passage of staff and customers in any store in the Médiacité shopping center”, he added.
Moreover, “it is false to maintain that night work is automatically illegal. The social inspection has formally confirmed to us that working after 8 p.m. is legally possible”continued CBRE, which recalled that 20,000 people visit Médiacité every day.
“It is our duty to protect our customers and ensure respect for the rights of our traders and workers while guaranteeing employment and safety within the shopping center”finally summarized CBRE, saying nevertheless “open to dialogue”.
