After a month of strikes at Delhaize, the socialist union BBTK is going to court. BBTK will file a criminal complaint against Delhaize and three board members with the labour audit office. The union claims the supermarket chain’s management is deliberately circumventing the Renault law, which defines the modalities of a collective dismissal. Still according to the socialist union, the supermarket chain is failing in its consultation and information obligations as well as sabotaging previous works councils by treating union members as terrorists and subjecting them to strict security procedures.
Filip Tilleman, a lawyer specialising in labour law, was consulted on the legal validity of this: “The Renault law defines very clearly when the rules around collective dismissals apply. For a company like Delhaize, with more than 300 employees, it is only when at least 30 employees are dismissed in a 60-day period. If Delhaize spreads those 280 redundancies over a much longer period, then the Renault Act simply does not apply. You may find that unfair, but the legislator has drawn a line somewhere. And those who respect that line are legally in order.
Read the entire article from De Standaard here.
