Employees of Basque supermarket Eroski to work 5% more for same pay

The cooperative members of Eroski (the Basque Country''s biggest supermarket and member of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation) have agreed, for a second year running, to an increase in their working hours as well as a repeated freeze on their salary. As a result, they will continue to earn the same as two years ago but work 5% more.

Eroski''s worker-members voted in 2009 to accept a freeze on their wages as well as to work 10% more. This year, they will continue to work for the same money but with 90 hours (15 days) added to their timetables, a 5% increase on 2010.

With this initiative, cooperative members intend to ride the effects of the current economic crisis given that, according to the directors of the company, purchase figures for food products have remained frozen since May last year and there are no signs this will improve in the short term.

Eroski is the third biggest food distributor in the Spanish state with a market share of 11.5%. It has more than 2,000 stores around the country and in 2010, personnel figures had reached 47,500 employers, 4,500 less than the previous year.