Hellofresh lays off more than 600 employees – t3n – digital pioneers

Behind the fresh appearance of Hellofresh it stinks – at least when it comes to employee appreciation. (Photo: Shutterstock/Daria Nipot)

Despite increasing sales, Hellofresh is closing a warehouse in the USA – evicting 611 workers. The background could be union busting.

The concept of the Berlin company Hellofresh is very simple: The company supplies cooking boxes with recipes and the corresponding ingredients to customers, who can spend a relaxed evening without stressful shopping. That seems to be working: Hellofresh was still recording in the last half year record sales.

Despite this, profits fell loudly business insider but by a full 50 percent.

Now the company is closing a warehouse in Richmond, California, laying off 611 employees. The main reason for this is said to be a non-extended lease for the building.

In addition to the suspicion that it could actually be a cost-cutting measure, there is a completely different accusation: coincidentally, the workers in the now closed warehouse had tried to set up a union last year.

And as much as Hellofresh is concerned with the comfort of its customers, the company with the green logo seems to have little interest in decent working conditions.

For example, workers report wages that are so low that they cannot pay their rent and timers that monitor toilet visits. Also in Germany have already been accused according to Hellofresh have obstructed the establishment of a works council.

Under intense pressure, warehouse workers in Richmond ultimately decided against forming a union. Apparently that was of little use to them.

The suspicion is that the company dropped a possibly necessary closure on exactly this company headquarters in order to make an example. Other exploited employees are likely to think twice about loud efforts for better working conditions in the future.

Perhaps in the future some of Hellofresh’s customers will also consider going shopping themselves…