Albert Heijn accused of firing warehouse worker who organized strike for colleagues
Public support is mounting for Pawel Rudzki, a 30-year-old temporary warehouse worker at Albert Heijn’s Delfgauw distribution center, who says he was dismissed after organizing a strike for better working conditions for his colleagues.
Chalk messages reading “Justice 4 Pawel” have appeared outside multiple Albert Heijn stores across the Netherlands, including in Nijmegen, The Hague, Leiden, and Delft, AD reports.
Rudzki, originally from a village near Krakow, Poland, said he has been “broken” by his dismissal. “I’m at home sick; I need medication to stay calm. What happened is so unfair. I always worked diligently and never arrived late at the distribution center. Because I stood up for my colleagues, I was shown the door,” he told AD.
Rudzki had been placed at the Delfgauw warehouse for eight years through staffing agency OTTO and represented fellow workers as a union delegate for FNV. He said he supported a union strike in June and July to improve the collective labor agreement for temporary workers, even though his own salary had recently increased and he was scheduled to take on a trainer role.
FNV union official Levin Zuhlke-van Hulzen confirmed that about half of the 600 Delfgauw employees were temporary workers and that across all Albert Heijn distribution centers, roughly 3,500 of 6,500 employees were flex workers.
Uhlke-van Hulzen said Rudzki’s dismissal violated multiple workplace standards. “After the strike, Pawel was stripped of his tasks, faced intimidation, and received three warnings in two weeks. His productivity supposedly declined sharply—but that’s not true,” she told AD.
Zuhlke-van Hulzen said Rudzki was denied union representation in a scheduled meeting on October 15 and was told he could leave the company that day. “Because Albert Heijn is technically not his employer, they could dismiss him without a valid reason. We call this an abuse of the temporary worker system,” she said.
FNV has filed a lawsuit seeking a permanent contract for Rudzki. “Yes, I want to return to Albert Heijn. I miss my colleagues,” Rudzki said.
An Albert Heijn spokesperson said the company “never penalizes anyone for union work” and that “everyone must feel free and safe to organize at Albert Heijn.”
