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Workers of MarcPol organize to get compensation
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MarcPol is the first supermarket chain in post-PRL Poland, operating since 1988, mainly in Warsaw and nearby towns. For the past few years, it has been behind on rent and sometimes payments to workers. ln April, the owner sold the majority stake to another company but 10 creditors took the company to court where in June, bankruptcy was declared. (In Poland, creditors can also declare the company bankrupt and try to recover money from liquidated assets.) But a second entity was also set up in April - Marcpol Bis. The firm was set up with a minimum of share capital.Although the first firm is "bankrupt", some supermarkets still operate under the title "Marcpol". Some of the old Marcpol supermarkets are also run by the firm Doroty Plus. The Chairman of that firm was, up until a few months ago, a member of the board of Marcpol.

In order to see how this web is tangled by a group of investors, we can point out that in April another firm, Marywilska lnvest, was set up, and its partner is BT (Bruno Tassi). Doroty Plus, which runs some of the supermarkets, is owned by the same person as Bruno Tassi.

Marcpol Bis already has been reformed as Delikatesy Stolicy. The former owner of Marcpol opened a new corporation less than 2 weeks ago.

So while assets and employees are being switched around behind closed doors, many workers have been left high and dry by Marcpol. Another group of workers are still working and should have had their contracts transferred to the new owners but were offered new contracts on less favourable conditions.

To make matters worse, the appointed liquidator is the same as in the case of the Atlantic and ViS companies. Only after some actions, including confrontations with the former owners and occupation of the office, did the liquidator move concerning the workers' claims and, even then, he did not want to deal with workers on civil contracts - which are a large portion of people in the Polish workforce.

Part of the Marcpol workers have organized with ZSP to represent their interests and fight for what they are owed. The union is also speaking with other former workers who are now employed by different entities with a view towards long-term organization in these chains.

In the meanwhile, we again point out and expose how capitalists move their assets around and set up webs of legal entities to avoid responsibility towards workers and how the legal system is complicit in this particular form of theft.