From Payroll Glitches to Pickets: German Retail Workers Fight for Fair Wages on Multiple Fronts
13.06.2026 - 00:31:57 | boerse-global.de
It started with a software error. At the fashion retailer Wöhrl, employees have been grappling with faulty payroll calculations ever since the company introduced a new SAP system in January. Unpaid public holidays, miscalculated commissions, and missing loss-deduction payments became routine. When the company then tried to claw back what it claimed were overpaid commissions, the collective anger boiled over.
The Wöhrl works council pushed back hard: demands for repayment are not permissible, it said, until the company has delivered fully accurate payslips. The situation highlights how technical failures can escalate into full-blown labour disputes – especially when trust is already fragile.
Wöhrl is also planning to move its 450-euro minijob staff into a separate services company called WTHG. That would mean terminating their original contracts and rehiring them as temporary agency workers. The trade union ver.di has sharply criticised the move, warning that it undermines job security. The retailer is no stranger to financial distress: it filed for protective shield proceedings back in September 2016, leading to the closure of 34 outlets in eastern and southern Germany and the eventual insolvency of its subsidiary Wöhrl Mode & Textilhandelsdienstleistungen GmbH.
Meanwhile, on the streets of North Rhine-Westphalia, ver.di members walked off the job this Friday at Primark, H&M, Zara and TK Maxx. Strike action centred on Dortmund, Bielefeld, Münster, Wuppertal, Neuss and Düren, with additional walkouts at an H&M store in Würzburg (Bavaria) and sites in Lower Saxony and Bremen.
The union is demanding a 7% pay rise – at least 225 euros per month – over a 12-month contract period. In Lower Saxony, it also wants a minimum hourly wage of 14.90 euros. Employers have dismissed the demand as unrealistic, offering instead 2% from November 2026 and a further 1.5% from August 2027. The next round of talks is scheduled for 6 July.
Wage pressure is not confined to the retail sector. Yesterday, the Lower Saxony Labour Court heard a case brought by employees against Volkswagen over bonus payments made during the company's crisis. The lawsuit reflects a broader trend: as insolvencies like that of SinnLeffers continue to rattle the German retail landscape, the battle over pay and working conditions is only intensifying.
