The job security of staff at Aldi has came into question recently in a report by the Daily Mail on its treatment of employees.
Former Aldi Deputy Manager – turned whistleblower – Andrei Ignatsecu, claims that checkout clerks face the sack if they don’t scan at least 1,000 items an hour. This equates to an item every 3.5 seconds. Staff that fail to meet this target can be let go.
Ignatescu, who worked at a store in Ely, Cambridgeshire, spoke to The Daily Mail: “We all got performance reviews and deputy managers would get told if they were not keeping up. If you don’t hit these targets, you are shown your actual speed and have a performance review meeting with managing staff. If this happens three times you can be let go. “I had to be fast and many customers were not happy about it. I told the managers this but they didn’t listen. They don’t care because they can easily find other staff.”
With many workers holding fears that their job could soon be automated, especially those in retail, Ignatsecu’s comments did little to allay concerns. He continued: “They expect you to be like a robot. My colleagues felt the same as me… but they needed the money.”
Further claims from the former deputy manager include the effective naming and shaming of “un-inefficient” staff and a refusal, from management, to take the customer’s shopping speed into consideration. Ignatescu added that he took time off for stress.
Aldi responded to the claims by saying that 85% of staff felt Aldi was a great place to work, adding: “This former employee never raised any of these matters during his time with us and his claims are unrepresentative of the views of our 29,000 colleagues.” Earlier this week, new research from Specialists4Protection, found that 46% of employees feel more stressed at work than they did a year ago. Almost one in three are taking medication as a result.
Speaking about the results, Paul Litster, Managing Director at Specialists4Protection.co.uk, said: “Employee stress and sickness is already at crisis levels and, as the problem gets worse, it’s a ticking time-bomb.”
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Link to HR Gapevine article on this issue: https://www.hrgrapevine.com/content/article/news-2017-04-07-1000-item-per-hour-targets-for-aldi-staff-ex-manager-claims