More Aussie businesses adopt ‘woke’ Australia Day stance
Some of the best-known companies in the nation have made a major change for their workers on Australia Day.
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The number of companies giving the staff the option to take an alternative day off instead of Australia Day continues to grow, as debate rages about the increasingly controversial public holiday.
Banking giant ANZ and software innovator Atlassian have this year joined a raft of large Aussie corporates making the change.
Other large firms that allow staff to swap the holiday for a different day include Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, Qantas, CSL, consultants Deloitte, KPMG, PwC and EY, law firm King & Wood Mallesons and miner Woodside, according to a list compiled by The Australian.
“Based on experience, we expect the vast majority of our people will take advantage of the Australia Day public holiday,” a Deloitte spokesperson told The Australian.
“If staff have to work on Australia Day due to client commitments they are entitled to take an additional day off in lieu of their choosing.”
King & Wood Mallesons executive director of people and development Kathryn Bellion said 123 people in its 1600-strong workforce took advantage of the law firm’s policy to swap public holidays with days culturally significant to them last year.
NAB’s most recent enterprise bargaining agreement allows staff to swap public holidays, but it’s understood all staff, excluding business-critical teams, will take Australia Day off.
Retailers Woolworths, Target, Kmart, Bunnings allow store staff to either opt into or out of working on the public holiday, while office staff at Woolworths and Bunnings observe traditional public holidays.
Woolworths sparked controversy recently after revealing it wouldn’t stock Australia Day merchandise in its stores.
The move led to calls from opposition leader Peter Dutton for Aussies to boycott the supermarket giant, while former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, now affiliated with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, declared on social media that businesses that “go woke, go broke”.
Fellow supermarket giant Aldi is also not stocking Australia Day themed merchandise this year, however Coles is selling the goods.
The Australian High Commission in the UK has this year cancelled its traditional Australia Day festivities while almost 100 local councils across Australia have cancelled citizenship ceremonies after the Albanese government scrapped rules that forced councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26.
January 26 is considered by many First Nations people and other Australians to be a day of mourning rather than celebration as it marks the day the British permanently colonised Australia and thus ‘invaded’ Indigenous land.
Originally published as More Aussie businesses adopt ‘woke’ Australia Day stance
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