Grocery Chain Forces Employees to Deliver Orders on Foot, Fires Those Who Reject

A worker of Şok Market returns from home delivery. (Photo: Twitter)

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Şok Market, one of the largest grocery chains in Turkey, introduced home delivery after the coronavirus pandemic spread in the country. However, employees of the market deliver orders on foot, rather than using vehicles.

The company reportedly fires employees who don't accept such working conditions. Bahadır S. (31), who was working at a Şok store in Manavgat, Antalya is one of them.

He says that the company did not hire new employees after introducing home delivery and forced its workers to deliver orders on foot, without taking measures for protection from the virus.

"Two months ago, they distributed meal cards to us and asked us to sign a paper that read our meal allowances would be loaded on these cards. But they did this hastily, didn't allow us to read it. The third article of the paper they made us sign said how home delivery would be added to our contracts," says Bahadır S.

"As of last week, they introduced the 'Cepte Şok' [Şok on mobile] app. We learned about the app through our colleagues. I told the store manager and the regional manager that I wouldn't do delivery in case an order came. Because I wasn't told such a thing when I started the job it wasn't included in our contract.

"We were four people working at the store and our workload was quite heavy. They took my defense statement and told me that I should take unpaid leave or they would take legal action.

"I would be left without money either if I took unpaid leave or I was fired. Because I didn't want to work in those conditions, I wanted legal action to be taken and they dismissed me on Monday [April 6]."

Two of the three remaining employees at the store also weren't willing to deliver an order by foot but they accepted delivery after the regional manager offered to take them with a car, Bahadır says.

He says he speaks out for other employees who have to remain silent and hopes that their working conditions will improve.

Şok: We are hiring new people

After drawing criticism on social media because of workers delivering orders on foot, the company released a statement, saying that it introduced home delivery for people older than 65, who cannot go out because of a curfew.

It added that its stores don't deliver orders to locations more than 500 meters away. While it admitted the employees deliver "light" packages on foot, it said vehicles are used for heavier packages.

Şok also stated that it hired 350 workers in a week for delivery services and plans to hire 5000 more people this year. (HA/VK)