Supermarkets hopeful of late deal with Vic government to keep stores open
A last-minute deal between the major supermarket chains and the Victorian government could avoid mass supermarket store closures in Victoria this weekend.
Business
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The Victorian government will this weekend start a pilot trial of contact tracing for supermarkets that should avoid the need to send home into isolation entire staff if a store is exposed to Covid-19, avoiding the likelihood of mass supermarket closures.
The new “risk-based” contact tracing protocols for supermarkets should ensure that entire shifts of staff will not be ordered into home isolation, which has been a growing problem for the supermarkets in Victoria and has seen tens of thousands of much-needed workers stuck at home.
It is understood a deal between the Victorian government, state health officials and the key supermarkets – Woolworths, Coles and Aldi – was secured at a meeting late on Friday afternoon.
The core of the deal brokered between the government, health department officials and the supermarkets is believed to centre around minimising the number of staff who need to be sent home for isolation and testing if a Covid-19 customer enters the store or a staff member on a particular shift is infected. It could stem the flow of supermarket employees stuck in isolation, leaving a growing black hole in supermarket rosters.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the government had held meetings with the supermarkets on Friday said and possible changes to isolation protocols were tracking positively.
“I think it’s fair to say … it’s resolved in a good place, but of course we want to try and drive down the number of cases,” he said.
Mr Andrews thanked supermarket workers for the “amazing job” they had done over the past 20 months during the pandemic.
“I’m deeply grateful to them and their families, their managers, the whole team … they have done an amazing job,” he said.
The deal looks to have avoided mass supermarket closures across Melbourne and Victoria this weekend, which the supermarket giants have been warning the government about for weeks unless contact tracing and isolation protocols were made less restrictive.
But it will be too late for some supermarket stores that are short of staff, with Woolworths closing a handful of stores this weekend and others on reduced hours.
Woolworths, the nation’s biggest supermarket chain, announced last Friday the closure of some of its Victorian stores over the weekend as well as reduced hours due to thousands of its staff placed into mandatory home isolation triggered by Covid-19 store exposures.
The Woolworths Watergardens South store in Melbourne’s outer northwest will not be able to open this weekend, with Woolworths hoping to reopen it on Tuesday. A further 21 stores will operate reduced trading hours at the weekend.
Woolworths’ Sunshine Marketplace store in the city’s west was closed at midday on Friday, but is expected to reopen on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, a spokesman for Woolworths told The Weekend Australian it was working with state government officials on contact tracing protocols in supermarkets.
“We’re grateful for the dialogue and trust we can find a suitable way forward soon,” he said. “Customers and team members should be assured they can continue to safely shop and work at our supermarkets.”
The waves of supermarket staff thrown into home isolation, often because of a single case at a store, has disrupted supermarket operations and threatened the viability of the retailer supply chains to stock shelves and have staff at stores to serve customers.
The supermarket chains have been pleading with the Victorian government for weeks to not be as strict on mandatory home isolation for all staff when an infected customer enters the store – especially when the customer might have only been in the store for a few minutes or only visited one part of the store.
Woolworths, for example, has more than 1000 Victorian team members in isolation at present, putting a strain on store operations.
The chain currently has 24 stores listed as tier 1 exposure sites. At these sites, large numbers of staff are required to isolate for 14 days.
Coles, which has more of its store fleet in Victoria, has had 30,000 staff required to isolate at home due to state Covid-19 protocols.
Originally published as Supermarkets hopeful of late deal with Vic government to keep stores open
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