The Thriving Fashion Store
There’s a large chain of shops selling ‘affordable clothing since 1841 that has extended around continental Europe and other parts of the world. Despite unrelenting competition from more modern fashion chains, they have survived the test of time notwithstanding closing 109 outlets in the UK in 2000. It’s significant that they have remained very active in mainland Europe, with over 1400 outlets. Today it is generally an older generation of thankful customers that still purchase their goods.
Switzerland also has its share of these shops, in some of the leading shopping centres, and I sometimes go into one of these in the vague hope of finding something trendy and/or smart. Thus, I encountered my long-standing friend Maria (name changed) the other day, carefully refolding some trousers that inconsiderate customers had simply thrown into a pile. As usual, I asked how she was, expecting her typical sunny smile and uplifting answer. But on this occasion, her face clouded over and reflected deep anxiety and pain, almost verging on tears. I wondered whatever tragedy had befallen her, only to hear a story of unparalleled moral injustice.
Maria has worked fulltime, non-stop for this company in one or other of her local branches for over forty years. She is 59 years of age, has never married or had children and has reckoned with remaining employed with the company until she goes into her well-deserved retirement. Nobody could have shown more loyalty, consistency and work-ethic than her. She then explained that the ‘wise ones’ in charge of her company in Switzerland are closing down her branch, and replacing it with a popular German supermarket. This came as such a shock to her, because clearly all these plans had been carried out without a whisper in advance to the staff concerned. They were incapable of offering her a position in the other remaining branch in the same town. After some negotiation, they could offer her a position in different branch, a bus and train-ride away in another town, but only 60% of her present salary. Practically speaking, she can no longer hope to finance her modest lifestyle on this income and after working her entire life, she will be forced to apply for supplementary social benefits to be able to exist. In addition to that, her pension scheme, to which she has contributed all her life, will be heftily compromised as a result of these changes not due to any fault of her own. Before anyone asks: it is out of the question at her age, for her to apply anywhere else for a job, despite her obvious long-term working experience in retail.
And, as if the privileged, managerial decision-makers weren’t causing enough anguish, the date for her removal is New Year’s Eve, so Maria won’t be having a happy Yuletide. Then to augment her seasonal well-being, she will not be provided with any new winter clothes in her diminishing collection. But she will be forced to endure not only the Christmas turbulence, but during the month of December she has to hold sales, to dispose of all the goods, not yet sold. As a special treat, she can then spend the first working week in January 2022, packing up the entire shop and display units, before starting at her distant new job the following week.
Morally speaking, it sickens me on her behalf. Is it too much to expect from a thriving international concern in this era of such uncertainty for lower-paid employees, nearing the end of their working life, to be pensioned off prematurely in a case like this? Can the laws of the land not safeguard workers, when they have dedicated over 40 years of their life to the same company, to continue to live with dignity? What have we come to as a society of human beings, to pull the rug out from under the feet of a hard-working employee, having given her the illusion of security? This, particularly in a country so dedicated to supporting thousands of people who decide to spend their entire life being unemployable.
Photo: pexels / ezequiel-da-silva