Coles supermarket workers to win pay rise under new agreement

Coles workers are expected to get higher wages after a night-shift worker settled her ­underpayment case against the supermarket.

Penny Vickers has won a confidential settlement and is happy with the new deal with Coles. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Coles workers are likely to receive higher wages from March, after a nightshift shelf stacker cleared the way for a new enterprise bargaining agreement by settling her ­underpayment case against the supermarket giant.

The deal between Brisbane worker Penny Vickers — who represented herself in the Fair Work Commission — and Coles means a new EBA for Coles’ 77,000 employees is all but certain to replace agreements from 2014 and 2011 which were negotiated with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association but have been heavily criticised for offering penalty rates below award levels.

The proposed deal is estimated to cost Coles up to $10 million as it will now pay award-level penalty rates to permanent weekend and late-night employees, and give a one-off $475 payment to full-time employees in lieu of backpay.

Weekday workers will receive only small pay rises equal to half the annual minimum wage increase, or $11.10 extra each week.

Ms Vickers, who has been working for Coles since 2012, had applied to the FWC to terminate the 2011 agreement that workers were moved to after an earlier legal challenge saw the 2014 agreement scrapped.

Coles said Ms Vickers had agreed to withdraw her application to the FWC and the supermarket would conduct a vote on a new agreement by the end of February.

“Coles will give eligible team members a transition payment, reflecting the pay structure in the new enterprise agreement being paid for the period between any successful vote and the commencement of the new agreement,” the company said in a statement. “Once the new enterprise agreement is approved, Coles will ensure that team members will be paid in accordance with the new enterprise agreement from the earlier date of a successful vote.”

Ms Vickers, who remains a member of the SDA and the rival Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, said she was satisfied with the proposed deal.

“Workers will always want more money and always want more terms and conditions and yet we also have to ensure the viability of the business going forward,” she said. “It’s been a difficult decision, but a lot of thought has gone into it. I’m satisfied this is the right way forward.”

The SDA has given its support for the new deal, with national secretary Gerard Dwyer saying it would protect existing employees’ take-home pay, improve penalty rates, provide future wage increases and protect as many over-award conditions as possible.

RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan said while the “vast majority” of workers would now receive more money, the proposed deal had several defects, including different rates for new and existing casual staff, raising the prospect of major roster changes. “The agreement will introduce a two-tiered workforce where new staff will effectively be paid five cents more than the award,” he said. “There isn’t backpay in recognition of the tens of thousands of workers who’ve earned less than the award for the last couple of years.”

The Vickers case heard evidence that Coles did not conduct any modelling on whether its 2014 employment deal with unions could pass the “better off overall” test and there was no formal sign-off on the deal by company directors before the enterprise bargaining agreement was submitted to the commission.