Many locations of Russia’s online retailer Wildberries are not open today in Siberia and Far East due to the employees going on strike, Telegram channel Sibirmedia and local outlet Tayga.info report.
“Locations are closed for the clients, the orders aren’t being given out,” the Sibirmedia post states.
There are reports of strikes in Buryatia, Zabaykalsky region, Irkutsk region, Krasnoyarsk region, and Kemerovo region.
Telegram channels previously reported that up to 7,000 Wildberries points of issue of orders would close starting today, 15 March.
In some Russian cities — Barnaul, Yekaterinburg, and Blagoveshchensk — the strikes began yesterday. “The location is closed until we receive our paychecks,” the sign on one of the locations in Barnaul reads. Sibirmedia claims that in some points of issue of orders the employees barricaded the windows using boxes so that “customers would not break in”.
Wildberries employees are protesting unfair working conditions. Recently, the retailer introduced a new system of fines, under which, for example, a return of a defective product means that its price is paid by the point of issue of orders’ owner. This has led to the location owners’ losing thousands of rubles.
Media outlet RBC reported yesterday that dozens of the points of issue of orders’ owners gathered near the Wildberries main office in Moscow. Several media outlets and Telegram channels referred to it as the “storming” of the company’s HQ.
The organisation itself denies all information about the strikes, adding that 10-15 people who called themselves “representatives of the partnership of points of issue of orders” came to the Moscow office but refused to provide their information.
Later on, one of the organisers of a Telegram chat that unites almost 10,000 Wildberries employees told Forbes that starting from 15 March the locations’ operations will be limited: in particular, customers will not be able to receive orders. The outlet claims that such strikes are planned across all of Russia.
The Moscow region prosecutor’s office will investigate the information about the employees’ labour rights being infringed upon.
