Photo: Jérémy-Günther-Heinz Jähnick / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Summer is just around the corner, and at Lidl Croatia workers are once again receiving vacation allowance in the amount of 535 euros net, the same as they received in previous years.

But instead of satisfaction, bitterness prevails among employees. The reason? Colleagues from Lidl Slovenia, for the same job, with the same employer, will receive as much as 2000 euros in vacation allowance this June! Are Croatian workers really worth four times less than Slovenian ones?

One Lidl employee from Croatia (details known to the editorial staff of the danica.hr portal) says bluntly:

“They will pay us 535 euros in vacation allowance, while our colleagues at Lidl Slovenia will get 2000 euros! Are they worth four times more than us? Yet we work in the same company, side by side.”

The situation is even more bizarre when it is known that Lidl Croatia achieves higher revenue and profit than Lidl Slovenia. Last year Lidl in Croatia generated 1.3 billion euros in revenue, with a net profit of around 60 million euros, while the average net salary amounts to around 1630 euros, 160 euros more than the year before. Lidl is also known for regularly increasing salaries for its employees, paying a 13th salary, Christmas bonus, Easter bonus, and various bonuses. But all of that pales when you look at what is happening in Slovenia.

This year, Lidl Slovenia is paying 2000 euros in vacation allowance to every employee, which is even above the legal minimum in that country (1277 euros gross). And they are not the only ones; vacation allowances of 2000 euros or more are not uncommon among Slovenian companies. In addition, Lidl Slovenia employees enjoy a range of other benefits: collective health insurance for the whole family, a 36-hour workweek with full rights, the possibility of working from home, and even “sabbaticals,” a three-month unpaid leave after five years of work. All this shows how seriously Slovenia invests in worker satisfaction and well-being.

While Lidl in Croatia is achieving record profits and boasting of the best salaries in the sector, employees are rightly asking why their rewards and vacation allowances are several times lower than those in Slovenia.

Source: danica.hr