Employees of Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries launched a nationwide class action on Wednesday to protest a new payment system, according to the Russian edition of Forbes. reportedquoting one of the protest organizers.
“We will go to work so as not to violate the terms of the labor contracts, but we will not hand over the goods to the buyers”, one of the organizers of the MEGA Bunt (Strike) The Telegram group, which has more than 10,000 members, told Forbes.
Under a new system introduced by Wildberries this month, its employees are now responsible for the costs of any defective items that are returned as well as those that were shipped to the wrong buyer. The company said that in 98% of those cases, mistakes made by its staff were to blame.
Wildberries employees say the new system resulted in one employee having 500,000 rubles ($6,581) deducted from his salary, Forbes reported.
Wildberries denied that any form of industrial action was taking place on Wednesday, narrative the RBC business daily that “the information about the ‘strike’ is false. Orders can be received without restriction.
Meanwhile, the Moscow region prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that he would consider whether the new plan violated employee rights.
Possesses by Russia’s richest woman, Tatyana Bakalchuk, Wildberries is one of the largest online marketplaces in Russia and the former Soviet Union and has around 32,000 employees.