Agreement reached on Les Petits Riens dispute, but redundancies remain

Long-running protests over restructuring plans announced last November for second-hand goods sales and collection organisation Les Petits Riens have come to an end.

A so-called “social agreement” has been reached at the charity, according to the Brussels branch of trade union Setca. However, the 21 redundancies planned at the Anderlecht sorting centre will still go ahead.

“This announcement was not preceded by any information,” said Setca’s permanent secretary Sihame Fattah.

She was referring to the “brutal” 15 November decision to lay off staff, leading to strikes not only in the Anderlecht sorting headquarters but also in other Brussels outlets of Les Petits Riens.

The unions generally condemned the lack of transparency and the absence of social dialogue within Les Petits Riens. Finally, after several weeks’ deadlock, an agreement has now been reached.

“We recognise the difficulty of the economic situation, said Fattah. "For its part, management has admitted to a lack of consultation and has committed to a resumption of social dialogue. We have obtained commitments, but we are now waiting for action.”

As a social economic actor, Les Petits Riens aims to combat poverty by directing all of its income into social projects. It also employs every year about 500 people from marginalised backgrounds.

The well-known charity was set up in 1937 in Brussels by Catholic priest Abbé Froidure (1899-1971). An Ixelles park is named after this social hero who also founded, in 1930, the Stations de Plein Air.

Still running today, this organisation with its headquarters in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre offers “creative leisure activities for disadvantaged children in a green environment” mainly in school holidays.

Les Petits Riens now has 28 second-hand shops in Belgium. The group employs more than 1,100 people - of whom about 600 are volunteers.