The services industry trade union Verdi and the Irish clothing retailer Primark have reached an agreement to provide training for management staff on workplace health. The agreement, which is one of a kind in Germany's retail sector, was announced on Thursday 29 March. It involves an extensive training programme for managers at the company, covering four modules and topics, and is geared towards rectifying a shortcoming that has emerged amid a significant growth in the firm's workforce. Cosimo Damiano-Quinto, one of those who negotiated the deal on Verdi’s side, tells Planet Labor about the significance of the agreement and how it could, ultimately, help establish a standard for workplace protection. The deal has been struck in a sector where issues of work-related stress is on the rise and where, until now, employer federations have always refused to negotiate anything beyond non-binding measures.
A pioneering agreement for the sector. The discount clothing retailer has been present in Germany since 2009 and has experienced rapid growth in the country, with 22 stores now open, and five further openings in the pipeline, as well as more than 5,000 staff locally. “Like any company, Primark was under obligation to produce an analysis of the health risks within the firm. However, this audit showed, on the one hand, that health protection within the company is not keeping up with the pace of its growth and, on the other hand, that training on the issue given to managers by the Primark-Akademie was insufficient,” Cosimo Damiano-Quinto, Verdi’s federal secretary for the textile and clothing retail sector, explains.
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