Workers criticize the Girona-based sports giant: "It's a monster that thrives on a precarious employment model"

GironaThe Girona-based company Tradeinn, headquartered in Celrà and specializing in the online sale of sportswear and equipmentIt continues to grow. In 2024, it closed the year with a record turnover of 555 million euros and Decathlon entered the race to buy it and create an e-commerce giant in Spain. Extraordinary figures that continue to rise, with a volume of around 150,000 orders per day. Driving from the Pont Major neighborhood of Girona towards Celrà, the Tradeinn warehouses are visible from the roundabout and occupy a large part of the industrial park at the entrance to this small town at the foot of Les Gavarres. where the CUP has historically governed

In the days leading up to Christmas, the pace of trucks and vans coming and going is frantic, and every day a lot of customers come to the premises to pick up in situ their purchases. However, this model of success and growth contrasts sharply with the opinions and complaints of several company employees, who, through their union, denounce in the ARA newspaper "precarious" working conditions and an "excessively high-pressure environment" at work.

After years of protests and meetings with the human resources and occupational risk departments, the workers on the works council—made up entirely of six UGT members—raise their voices with a stark diagnosis: they point out that, behind Tradeinn's rapid expansion, there is a lack of jobs for people with disabilities or pregnant women, abuse of temporary employment agencies, and a lack of machinery and risk prevention measures. "Tradeinn is a corporate behemoth that has grown enormously, but it thrives on a model of structural precarity," states Maxi Rica, general secretary of UGT in the Girona region.

The workers interviewed by this newspaper say they dare to give their testimony because they have the protection of being members of the works council, but, apart from the official spokespeople, no employee by name has publicly criticized the company's management. "We know that the moment we aren't re-elected to the council, we'll be out on the street," say the UGT union representatives.

Tradeinn's management, headed by CEO David Martín, has preferred not to make any statements upon learning that the works council would make these protests public.

Work pressure and temporary work

One of the main complaints is the extreme temperature conditions, both in winter and summer, in the warehouses. Silvia Coll, a worker who has been with Tradeinn for nine years, reports: "In the summer, it was over 30 degrees Celsius. The hot air from the office air conditioning exhaust fans was blowing into the warehouse, and the works council filed complaints because some people were ending up dizzy, nauseous, and with frostbite, turning blue. Until a few weeks ago, we didn't even have hot water in the women's restrooms to recover." All of this is compounded by a climate of "constant pressure," in which, according to Coll, management is constantly comparing workers' performance and penalizing them if they don't meet the established targets: "They make comparisons and tell you that you're not doing well. I've seen suspensions of 2, 15, and even 30 days," she argues.

The works council also alleges that union organizing is not easy because "there is fear" and an "abusive use" of temporary agency workers. This results in a large portion of the workforce having short-term employment contracts, and a significant number of workers, many of them of foreign origin, in precarious situations who cannot afford to lose their wages. In this regard, Tradeinn has received several fines from the Labor Inspectorate for temperature-related issues, and just this week, the workers' committee won a case regarding the company's use of temporary agencies to fill permanent positions. Unsuitable jobs

Similarly, the union criticizes the fact that this "competitive pressure" is evident in workers with recognized disabilities. Juan Carlos Zamora, a warehouse worker with a 30% disability, has been working at Tradeinn for five years and explains his situation: "From day one, I've been demanding solutions, that there be machinery so that people with disabilities can work more comfortably. I still do tasks like shrink-wrapping sticks by hand, even though tools to avoid this have been necessary for years. They ask you to do the same things as everyone else, without any adaptations. I reported it to the harassment committee and received no resolution," he laments. Silvia Coll also denounces the lack of accommodations for pregnant women: "I've had two pregnancies at Tradeinn, and since 2020, pregnant women have had to work with large machinery in logistics until 28 weeks." Without machinery upgrades or prevention

Complaints about a lack of more effective machinery are linked to demands for better training and workplace safety measures. "We've doubled the square footage without changing anything in terms of safety. The induction conveyors, the access points, the robots that move around in areas shared with workers... everything is half-finished. When the Labor Inspectorate comes, management presents a project that is never implemented," says Raquel Jaén, who has worked at the company for nine years in the logistics department. She concludes: "It's difficult for us to meet targets if the machines aren't working properly. We can invoice 200 T-shirts, but not 200 pairs of skis in an hour if the induction system fails. All of this generates frustration and puts more pressure on the workers."