A Colruyt employee in Sint-Truiden fell victim to aggression on Tuesday. A customer was contacted to follow the Corona procedures, and he got angry. He threw a punch and threw stones at the employee’s car. This was reported by the ACV-Puls Federation.
The incident revolves around Corona’s actions, which, according to the trade union, the customer did not comply with and therefore was held accountable. “When the cart was sterilized, the customer reacted with anger and pushed the cart in the direction of the shop assistant’s leg,” the union said. But she did not stop: After closing the shop, the man waited for the employee and threw stones at his car. When the employee then got out of the car, he also received a punch in the face from the customer. The incident was filmed on camera and the union says the police have been informed.
According to Colruyt Group, the employee is not interviewed after office hours. It is not true that the customer waited for our employee after the store closed. The discussion started later and right after that the rest of the facts were done outside the store. According to our information, the customer did not know at the time of the facts that he was an employee, since this person was at one time at the same time as a customer and was no longer wearing the uniform because his daily job had already ended.
In response, store employees, who said they were angry and upset, symbolically postponed their work for two minutes on Thursday. “ Almost every day we talk to a customer about following up on coronavirus measures, and after that, aggressive reactions often follow. We are really tired of it, “it seems.
“We deeply regret this incident, but this is by no means an isolated case,” says Frank Confints, secretary of ACV Puls. The union demands more respect for store employees and calls on Colruyt’s management to better follow up on incidents. “We’re asking Colruyt to take civil action,” says Convents, who adds that other store employees also struggle with aggression and fear.
We are sorry for the events that took place in and in Colruyt Sint-Truiden. “We are supporting the employees with their complaints that they have filed with the police services,” said a response from the Colruyt Group. It is true that we have to hold customers accountable on a daily basis for compliance with measures in our stores, but in most cases this is still done in very constructive conditions. Rarely does this happen, as it did in Sint-Truiden.
“This Corona crisis has been going on for more than a year now and these are not easy times for our employees in the stores. Fatigue occurs, both for our customers and for our employees, and this is completely understandable. We will stand by this together, and we work hard every day to deal with matters as constructively as possible. Above all, we respect each other, and we absolutely want to maintain the necessary peace of mind here, ” concludes Colruyt Group.
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