Disinfectant, card payment and distance rules: This is how Migros and Coop protect their employees from the Corona virus

Home office is practically impossible for employees of supermarkets. Your employers therefore use various measures to protect them.

—

From Monday at midnight, all shops in Switzerland that are not part of the basic service must close. For example, only pharmacies and grocery stores remain open. So while office workers can flee to the home office, pharmacists, cashiers and those who fill up the shelves have to go to work. The supply of the population must ultimately be ensured. As a result, the currently problematic contact with people is inevitable for them – at the checkout, for example, a safety distance of two meters between customer and cashier is difficult.

Migros, Coop and Co. have therefore taken various measures to protect their employees. The retailers in particular try to enforce the rule of “social distancing” in the branches as well as possible. At Coop, on request, customers are made aware of the rule with posters and an announcement. On the floor in front of the cash registers there are also striking distance lines.

Migros also appeals to its customers to keep their distance. “Social distancing concerns us all,” emphasizes a spokesman on request. In order to avoid contagion, the retailer claims to have equipped all 100,000 employees of the Migros Group with disinfectants. “Because disinfectants are hardly available anymore, we started to produce them in our own industry,” says the spokesman. These days, Migros is also providing customers with disinfection options.

Card payment, face mask and gloves

Coop and the discounters Aldi and Lidl also refer to the possibility of card payment, which avoids touching the unsanitary cash. “We recommend our customers to use card payments,” says Lidl. Coop emphasizes that customers should have the “freedom of choice”: “Customers who want to pay with cash can continue to do so.” As further measures, items such as shopping baskets and shopping carts are cleaned and disinfected more frequently in the branches. If necessary, employees could also use face masks and gloves.

The Syna and Unia unions are pleased to note the efforts of retailers. “We also expect employers to reduce employees’ customer contacts, avoid crowded crowds of people in stores, and that employees with symptoms of illness, including mild ones, can and must stay at home,” writes Syna on request. Unia also appeals to mutual respect: «Especially in retail, it is about a principle of solidarity. The employees and customers protect each other. » Last but not least, the Swiss Business Association points out that all additional measures such as washing hands or disinfecting the cash register or the computer must be part of regular working hours.

Longer opening hours due to customer crowds

However, a development is anything but conducive to curbing the Corona virus and protecting employees: since last Friday’s speech by the Federal Council, Swiss people have increasingly stormed supermarkets and have been tempted to buy hamsters – with the result that that the sometimes narrow aisles in the supermarkets were jam-packed. The retailers inquired confirm that the customer density in the branches and the demand for food rose again across Switzerland over the weekend. There is absolutely no reason for buying hamsters, they emphasize. The warehouses are well filled and supplies are being provided. There is no threat of a bottleneck.

The problem of hamster purchases and high customer numbers is also a problem abroad. In order to reduce customer density, shop opening hours have already been extended in some places. For example, the shops in Bavaria are open two hours longer on weekdays (until 10 p.m.). In addition, the shops are also open on Sundays (12 noon to 6 p.m.). In Switzerland this does not seem to be an issue yet. “This is currently not planned,” writes Coop. And when asked about Lidl, the only requirement is that “there are currently various measures for various possible scenarios”. In any case, the employees of the retailers are currently in high demand due to the high number of customers. They currently work around the clock to supply the branches and fill shelves, as a Migros spokesman said. They make extra trips and do extra shifts.