soL News talked with workers from Madame Coco, Turkey-based home textile and decoration chain store, revealing the exploitation of workers who are forced to survive with low salaries while they are compelled to finance the deficiency in accounts and broken or stolen goods at stores.
The home decor company, that has hundreds of stores in Turkey and abroad, compel the workers to work for weeks without any leave.
soL talked with three workers, who are working at three different Madame Coco branches, without knowing each other. "I'm a university student but I've worked part-time at different branches for several years. I'm living in Ankara. I worked for a branch of Madame Coco at a mall in Ankara. I began to work in March 2018," one of the workers told soL.
Talking about the working conditions, he said that the store took inventory regularly; however, account mistakes often appeared due to the employment of inexperienced and untrained personnel, which resulted in deficient accounts. "A store may have a deficit 3 per thousand; but if this rate exceeds 3 per thousand, we cut it from the worker," the worker briefed the store's main policy.
Giving an example regarding the widespread deficient accounts, he said that they recently experienced a deficiency amounting $1,47 thousand at a store, adding that the store administration cut over one third of the amount from the store director and nearly one third from the workers. "Since I was a part-time worker, I was receiving 950 liras ($155), yet I could receive only 185 liras ($30) in that month," he said, revealing that he had to work for free for a month.
'THEY DON'T PROVIDE THE COPY OF CONTRACT'
In answer to whether their rights are assured with a written contract, he said that the company did not give them a copy of the contract although he intended to take it several times, adding that he was not sure if the company had any right of cutting the cost of broken or stolen goods from the workers' salaries in accordance to the written contract.
"As far as I know, they can cut the employees' premiums, not the salaries, in case of such deficient accounts," he said in answer to whether he researched the labour law, indicating to some cases in which Madame Coco cut almost all of the salary except for minimum living allowances. He noted that they resigned when they faced such an incident by "reserving their judicial rights".
'THE BOSS NEVER LOSES'
Talking about the broken or damaged goods because of consumers, he said that the store forced them to pay the damage with deductions from their salaries. "We don't throw away the goods broken by consumers. An expert comes every couple of months for detecting and pricing the breakages," adding that the rest of the costs were cut from the workers. "The boss never loses, he always wins," he underlined.
Two workers from the branches of Madame Coco in Turkey's western city of İzmir talked about similar problems. One of them told soL that he became an object of derision because of his "effeminate" behaviours. "Girls, where are you going?" he cited his director who carried out sexual discrimination against him.
He said that the director angrily shouted at him since he mistakenly broke a glass water fountain, adding that he was exposed to severe mobbing and psychological pressure at the store. He stated that the director called him the next day to immediately compensate the cost of broken goods in cash although he did not receive the salary yet as a new worker.
"I could not endure and resigned", he said, because he was feeling exhausted since he had been forced to work for two weeks without any leave, and furthermore, he had been transferred to another branch to continue to work without rest.
The other worker from a different store in İzmir told soL that he had worked for around 40 days, but he left working because the shift order had not been proper for him." I should have received nearly 2 thousand liras ($327), after 40 days. However, I received only 233 liras ($38). They just gave this money because of deficient accounts and broken goods, I guess," he said, adding that he could not get a favourable result even though he tried to get his dues through meetings with directors.
He also said that although he had left the job, a case of deficiency appeared at the store and a director blamed him, adding that he was accused unduly considering that he had never engaged in banking procedures or safe works at the store.
