With the new year, the PSOE Government announced the rise of the SMI, which increased until October. This represented a change in the way workers in the Domino’s Pizza chain are charged. The company signed an agreement with the UGT and CCOO unions and, due to the wage hike, the distributors of Domino’s Pizza charge more per hour, but without the costs of each distribution.

The new sum has not been in favour of the workers and many now charge EUR 100 less per month than the other workers. For example, a salary of EUR 600 represents a reduction of 16.7%.

This is the case of Iker Fernández, a Domino’s Pizza worker from Ibarrekolanda. The salary he received prior to the wage hike was EUR 670 per month. He was taken away from the delivery supplements in exchange for charging more per hour, and he went on to charge EUR 550 per month, almost 18% less.

Violation of the right to strike

The workers of Domino’s Pizza in Bizkaia made stops to denounce the situation during the first weekend of June. Four of the workers who took part in the strike then received the letter of dismissal. They received it on 5 June, but with the date of 19 May, before the arrests took place. In the opinion of ELA, the company thus sought to eliminate the relationship between the layoffs and the strike. The union has denounced that the dismissal has been “very serious” and that it is therefore going to put in place lawsuits against wrongful dismissals.

Iker Fernández, distributor of Domino’s Pizza in Ibarrekolanda, was fired this way. He was about to sign the indefinite contract, but he received the letter of dismissal three days after the arrests that occurred. In addition, they have denounced that in the first days of mobilizations the company replaced several striker posts, in some cases forcing the displaced workers to work for 12 consecutive hours. ELA-Servicios delegate Isabel García has warned that in a restaurant at Domino’s Pizza a worker was working between 13:00 and 01:00 hours to replace strikers. ELA has already submitted two complaints to the labour inspectorate for illegal replacements.

In addition to the re-recruitment of dismissed persons, they call for the improvement of the State Convention and the adoption of real measures against job insecurity. Isabel García explains the situation of workers: “They don’t have a work schedule, salaries are very precarious, they do far more overtime than allowed by law, and working conditions are bad.”

It is managed by Domino’s Pizza Zen, Starbucks, Foster’s Hollywood, Burger King and several companies. As García has told us, the company has not yet contacted the trade unions. Yes, however, with the workers, “but the workers know that it is better to negotiate through the unions,” he explains.