“From March 15, the work of the Wildberries pickup point will be limited. We will go to work so as not to violate the terms of labor contracts, but there will be no delivery of goods to buyers, ”one of the organizers of the MEGA telegram chat Bunt, who united almost 10,000 employees of the marketplace pickup point. The action is planned throughout Russia, the PVZ employees agreed on this following the results of an online conference, which was attended by a Forbes correspondent.
With the help of the strike, the PVZ employees protest against the new system of fines introduced by the management. On March 3, at a conference call, Wildberries management announced to its employees that from March 3, 100% of the cost of the item will be withheld from the pickup point employee if the buyer returns it for an approved marriage or a replaced item. At that call, a representative of Wildberries explained that, after analyzing the substitutions, damage to goods and returns due to marriage, some internal algorithm came to the conclusion that in 98% of cases the pickup point employee was to blame. It will be impossible to challenge this decision, the representative of Wildberries warned.
“What we heard shocked us,” says one of the PVZ employees. “Items can be stolen or swapped at a warehouse, carrier, sorting center, anywhere, we honestly don’t understand why we were made extreme,” adds another. “And sometimes even the supplier himself may not report something to the package, but for some reason we are to blame,” complains the third interlocutor of Forbes.
Fines began to exhibit on the same day. For some of the employees of the PVZ, their value reached 500,000 rubles, shared managers. The situation worsened on March 13, when employees received information in their personal accounts that they, in the presence of debt, would not be able to withdraw their money from the system. Forbes has screenshots of these messages. The income of a pickup point employee depends on many components and is credited to the employee’s account in the system almost every day. “This was the last straw, and we decided to go on strike, but within the legal framework. Therefore, we will open a pickup point, go to work, but we do not plan to issue parcels, ”says a Forbes interlocutor from among the organizers of the event.
PVZ employees demand: to remove all debts for marriage and substitutions; be able to dispute debts and withholdings; return to the previous level of 25% the amount of deduction for marriage and substitution, and so on.
Questions from partners
As of January 2023, the Wildberries pickup point network consisted of 33,000 outlets, of which 13,800 are affiliated. Owners of partner points can support the initiative. On the morning of March 14, they came to protest at the company’s Moscow office.
How explained RBC TV channel is the owner of the pickup point, a transparent scheme for the distribution of earnings and penalties is needed. “Make the payment system as transparent as possible – the system of motivation for the rating, the system of deductions, and so on. Now everything is going unilaterally on the part of Wildberries, this does not suit us, ”he said.
Wildberries partners demanded feedback from the marketplace management. They are says live broadcast of what is happening. About 50 people came to the meeting with the management of the marketplace. Partners failed to get into the office. The marketplace guards blocked their way. The intruders called the police.
A representative of Wildberries told Forbes that about 10-15 people came to the office, accompanied by “yellow telegram channels”, who only called themselves “representatives of partner pickup points” because they refused to provide their data. “We are not sure that these were really our partners. Telegram channels made a molehill out of a molehill and presented it as a “rebellion” or “assault” of partners, but they represent only 0.1% of their total number, ”said the representative of the marketplace.
The strike is preparing
The representative of Wildberries calls the increase in fines for employees of the pickup point “an urgent problem,” but the measure is designed to protect entrepreneurs who sell goods. “Unfortunately, some unscrupulous buyers or managers of points of issue of orders can replace goods, for example, with cheap analogues or goods without labeling. To prevent this from happening, managers of points of issue must check them when returning goods. Therefore, we have introduced additional protection for our sellers from substitution. We expect that thanks to these measures, the share of fraud will decrease several times, ”says the representative.
“The meeting in the office ended with the writing of a dozen statements to the police, in which we asked to punish the marketplace for arbitrariness and cancel the new system of fines,” says in the final statement of the protesters. A spokesman for Wildberries claims that the company itself called the police.
Wildberries later agreed to hold an online meeting with partners. But on it they were once again told about the new rules, informs Internet resource “Caution Moscow”
A Wildberries spokesperson confirms the online meeting, but warns that “with “partners” who choose uncivilized forms of dialogue, threaten company representatives and attempt to disrupt the office, cooperation may be suspended for security reasons.”
A number of telegram channels publish photos of closed pickup points and reports of an impending strike. Fontanka informsthat some pickup points in St. Petersburg have already stopped working. The publication publishes photographs of an announcement in one of the pickup points, which refers to a “mass strike throughout the country.” Similar action In Ekaterinburg. At least three branches are not working in the city now, some managers have written letters of resignation. The work of the pickup point was also suspended in Barnaul, report local telegram channels.
“Information about the closure of distribution points, and even more so about “strike” is not true. Pickup points continue to work as usual, ”the Wildberries press service says.
Deal already got interested in the Prosecutor General’s Office, which instructed the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s Office to check information about the violation of the labor rights of employees of the Wildberries online store. Verification activities were organized in connection with information posted in the media about the violation of the labor rights of Wildberries employees, including the illegal deduction of funds from their wages, the report says.
The representative of Wildberries has not yet commented on this message.