How much should one be looking to expect monthly (or hourly) if they were working at one of these places, not as boss, more say, stocking, stacking and lorry uploading, that kind of thing, manual labour?

Can't help but I saw a documentary about the working conditions at ALDI (from what I have read LIDL is very similar) and the people were not treated very well:

• Apparently new "recruits" are expected to work a day for free and then some of them never get called up again meaning they worked a day for nothing (This is an Aldi policy to get free labour. They invite maybe ten people to work for free knowing very well they are not going to employ them.)
• From what I understood the employees can only work 50% maximum. They are then "on call" for the rest of the week meaning they can't get another 50% job.
• If employees are asked to stay on longer in the evening and they refuse they can get fired.
• Aldi refuses to sign a "convention collective" that would guarantee the working conditions of their employees.

If you are really keen on working in a Supermarket I would recommend you try Migros or Coop instead. It isn't perfect either but better than ALDI or LIDL.

I have read the same accusations against Aldi that Martin has posted.

I have friends that work at Aldi that tell me the exact opposite.

Confusing, I know.

My girlfriend told me she was reading this sometime today and ALDI deny the allegations put to them. Maybe they are being 'watched' now or something.

I suppose it depends on your direct superior. If you are lucky and end up with a nice boss the working conditions are not so bad.

Still the fact they refuse to sign a "convention collective" (sorry don't know the word in german or english) seems to prove that they are not yet ready to treat their employees as normal human beings.

LIDL have collective agreements in some countries though, LIDL is also pretty new to Switzerland too so I'm not too sure whether or not they have one in this country. I'm on the understanding that the 'convention collective' that you speak about here is a trade workers union or something along those lines... ???

It's a document that guarantees the rights of all the workers in one given sector of the swiss economy.

These rights are usually the result of discussions between the major companies and the trade unions.

Companies that refuse to sign these agreements usually treat their employees worse than companies that have signed them.

Ummm. No. Not true, at least in Switzerland.

No comment, but I could believe this.

Is there somewhere that one can find out which companies have in fact signed this agreement?

The 50% contract is rather confusing. What it means is that one has a 50% work contract (21 hrs / week) and the possibility of working up to 100%. Hours over and above 21 hrs / week are paid as overtime. Effectively this means one's holidays are paid at 21 hrs / week and one's 13th salary as well. When business is slow Aldi can also give one less ovetime effectively saving them money. Therefore, they are being cheap. This arrangement is ok if you only want a part time job but useless if you wish to have a full time job. Worthwhile to take note of as well: assistant managers also only have a 50% contract and are merely paid a slightly higher hourly wage.

+1 (Although it may be a lot tougher finding a job)

I think the 50% thing might have something to do with the way a pension is paid. If you are contracted for 50% employment and you end up working around 100%, the company would still be obliged to only pay 50% towards your pension whereas you would still be able to get the full amount for which you worked for.

I kinda vaguely understand this concept but can anyone say this too?

Yes they would only be obliged to pay 50% towards your pension but they do pay the equal amount you pay on your overtime so they are not cutting corners there.

So, after much debate about the negativities on both of these companies, is anyone able to answer my original question? lol.

I can answer half of your question: my mate earned between 22.75 - 24.30 / hour while working there (aldi), which also varies depending on where one lives. No idea what lidl offers.

That's not bad at all (depending on your lifestyle of course) considering what you can get for working in a retail store in the UK.

I worked in a call centre in Richmond, London as a senior sales person, bonuses were awful and the rate of pay was only between £7 and £7.50 an hour, add to that the extortionate costs of monthly travel through the London public transport system (zones 1 - 6) and after that, there was not much bacon left to bring home...

Lidl and Aldi salaries in the UK are not bad for the retail sector.

Store Assistants at up to £8.00/hour (Lidl) and £8.85/hour Aldi.

Managers and Deputies to £35,000pa and £23,000pa plus benefits (Lidl) or £45,000 and £28,000 (Aldi).

Not bad but not good either, £8.00-£9.00 per hour for a store assistant is a bit crappy if you live in London, good if your a northener

The good thing about Switzerland seems to be that a persons earnings reflect on the cost of living.

Their rates are higher than many other stores

So either way your just as skint, working North, South (England) or in Switzerland.

Not at all, the north of England may be cheap but that's only for housing, pizza and the cost of a pint, everything else is the same and in some aspects, more expensive, for example, you can go anywhere in London by bus for £1 (90p now I think) where in the north (last time I was there) I was paying £1.65 for a return bus ticket which is only a 2 minute bus ride (before you start thinking that a 2 minute bus ride is not worth the hassle of paying that much fare for the short duration and I am lazy, I would like to point out that it was for my weekly shopping at the supermarket), Here in Switzerland, public transport prices are strange, I wanted to buy a ticket for 2 weeks for the train, turned out that a monthly ticket was only 5 franks more.................

Things over here compared to England, seem to be a lot better when it comes to yearly salary, regardless of your position, especially now that the pound is down more every day against the Swiss Frank.

Anyway, I never took that job due to the bad things I had heard about their company policies and also the pay rate was not that great, they were offering only 2885 CHF a month @80%. The journey itself was more than an hour to get there and the working times were not exactly socially accepting