TALLINN - A number of former employees of VP Market, the Lithuanian retail leader that has been expanding into Estonia this year, have turned to labor dispute committees complaining about unpaid wages and overtime work.
Tiina Troska, secretary at the Tallinn labor dispute committee, told the daily Eesti Paevaleht that the committee had received five complaints from VP market employees, including office staff, a secretary and a personnel manager. A store assistant and general manager have also filed applications, she said.
One of the recurring gripes is that employers often find staff performance during the probationary period less than satisfactory, the paper reported.
In Tartu 12 former VP Market employees have filed notices with similar demands, according to the report. In some cases the employer was accused of withholding employment record books and severance pay.
Claims have also been filed for back wages and unpaid overtime work.
The head of the Tartu labor dispute committee, Jevgeni Kupri, said that all of the applications appeared at the end of July. The committee has not received this many applications related to a single company in years, he said, though it has recently heard few such complaints from other retailers.
Tessa Kutimets, former manager of the Tartu VP Market chain store who was dismissed 20 days before her probationary period ended, said that according to her knowledge, she was the longest serving manager of the store so far. After her dismissal, management has changed six times.
"I've been working in retail for a long time, and there's no other chain that operates with the same style as VP Market," Kutimets told the newspaper, adding that employees had to work long hours and often throughout the night.
VP Market has refused to pay her overtime and time worked during public holidays. Kutimets said the number of hours she worked in June - 346 - could be compared to slavery.
Kestutis Liutkus, head of Estonia's and Latvia's VP Market advertising division, said the company had met all of its obligations according to employee-company contracts.
"Some movement of staff can be explained by employees being visibly not ready to work honestly and in accordance with strict requirements," Liutkus said. "At the present moment we are not aware of any claims, but if there are any, we are asking to immediately notify the company's management."
Liutkus added that the former store manager had written down the number of shocking working hours recorded by Kutimets. "VP Market is prepared to prove that these figures do not correspond with reality and are false," he said.
