Facts: Working hours in trade
Today, approximately three out of ten, 30 percent, employed in trade have a full-time position.
In 1990, that percentage was 44 percent.
At the same time, the short part-time contracts, 1-19 hours per week, have increased sharply, from 17 to 27 percent.
Last autumn, the union asked its members, via Novus, how they felt about part-time work.
56 percent of those who work part-time answered that they want to work more hours, even higher among the younger, lower percentage among the elderly.
Source: Trade
About 300,000 people work in trade, about 200,000 of them part-time, a steadily increasing proportion. Of course, many do it entirely of their own volition, students who want an extra job, for example.
But many, many people want full-time jobs. Around half of the Trade Union’s members who currently work part-time want to work more, but cannot.
“It’s an increasing problem, the real full-time jobs are decreasing sharply,” says Handel’s chairman Linda Palmetzhofer.
The customer rules
The central employer party does not contradict the picture. But points to important explanations. It is the customer’s behavior that controls staffing. That’s why it looks the way it does.
— Customers come to the stores at limited times. The influx looks very different, hence the need for staff. And trade is a low-margin industry, says Ola Axelsson, head of negotiations at Swedish Trade.
Similarly, H&M responds:
“The changes implemented are about us having to adapt to our customers’ changing shopping behaviors and to ensure that we have the right staffing at the right time,” the company writes in an email response
In the clothing trade, the figures are even worse. According to union figures, only about 15 percent of employees in the clothing trade have a full-time job.
— They want more heads that they can ball with, now you are needed, now you are not needed, says H&M employee Nicole, whose real name is something else. She does not dare to speak openly for fear of reprisals from the employer.
No one has full time
H&M caught the eye last winter with its so-called planing of the staff. Hundreds of employees, many with long working lives in the group, had their working hours cut drastically. And now they have to fight about the working hours among themselves. Few, if any, come up full-time.
“No store salesperson has full time, only store managers and managers do,” says Peter Nilsson, club president at several H&M stores in southernmost Sweden.
According to the union, a common scheme in the retail trade, also in the grocery trade, is to tie up preferably young people around the company, for shorter visits. Among other things, H&M has introduced a new booking system.
— They release the passports in the morning, so even if you’re off, you have to be on the hunt all the time. They bring in extra staff who are guaranteed zero hours. In addition, they have brought in staffing companies, says Nicole.
Financial stress
The atmosphere in the store where she works has become bad, a competitive situation has arisen over the work shifts. It also creates financial stress when she and her colleagues do not know how much salary they will get together during the month, says Nicole. Sure, she could have had some understanding of the employer if the company or the store had gone badly, but that is not the case, according to her. The budget is met and the staff is busy.
— It’s starting to feel like the United States, that you have to have several jobs to make ends meet.
“We fully understand that the changeover we implemented in our stores in Sweden has affected our store employees to varying extents as we had to make very tough decisions,” the company responds to the question of how it views the fact that it is not possible to live on one salary .
“We have done our best to offer our employees an equivalent employment to the one they had at the beginning of the transition. However, this has unfortunately not always been possible and we have great respect for how this can affect them”.
Worse loyalty
Nicole, who has worked for around 15 years at the clothing giant, thinks it is illogical behavior from the employers. Employees move on when fewer are happy, then the company has to train new ones, which should be more expensive in the long run.
“Loyalty used to be good, but it’s not anymore,” she says.
But many have the shop job as a side job, according to Svensk Handel. According to Ola Axelsson at Svensk Handel, about a quarter of all those who work in trade are 24 years old or younger.
“Many of them have it as an extra job,” he says.
Trade association chairman Linda Palmetzhofer. Archive image.
But that talk doesn’t buy the union. It is most young people who want increased working hours, according to Linda Palmetzhofer and refers to the membership survey that the trade union has conducted.