Strike threatens Christmas food and booze supplies

More than 1500 warehouse workers will strike after Woolworths refused to lift its pay offer.

United Workers Union national secretary Tim Kennedy.

More than 1500 warehouse workers will strike from Thursday, potentially disrupting food and alcohol supplies to Woolworths and Dan Murphy’s outlets in the lead-up to Christmas.

The United Workers Union said workers at four distribution centres in Victoria and NSW would stay out until the supermarket giant lifted its pay offer and scrapped its employee performance management system known as the “framework”.

UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said Woolworths could fix the dispute by returning to the bargaining table and negotiating a fair agreement.

“No one wants to see bare supermarket shelves in the lead-up to Christmas,” Mr Kennedy said.

Woolworths Group’s supply chain arm, Primary Connect, said it was not expecting any immediate impact to stores in Victoria and NSW as a result of the industrial action, and stores in other states would not be impacted.

“Maintaining supply for customers is our priority in the lead-up to Christmas,” a spokeswoman said.

“We have extensive contingency plans in place to minimise any ongoing impact to customers, including significantly increasing stock levels in potentially impacted stores, and utilising the other 20 (distribution centres) and 8000 team members in our network to ensure regular deliveries to stores.”

While workers at the four centres are pursuing “cost-of-living wage increases” ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent annually, Mr Kennedy said they were prepared to consider smaller pay rises, provided they were above the inflation rate.

Primary Connect offered pay rises of 10 per cent over three years to workers at the Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre; 12.1 per cent over four years to Melbourne liquor centre workers, 7.1 per cent over two years to Wodonga centre workers; and 12.05 per cent over three years to workers at the Erskine Park centre in NSW.

The company said given the published inflation rate was currently 2.8 per cent, its wage offer “represents a real wage increase for all team members”.

Mr Kennedy said the employee performance management system, framework, needed to be abolished as it used engineered standards to discipline or even fire people for not meeting company-stipulated speeds of working.

“Workers have reported feeling pressured to cut corners and work unsafely or lose their job if they don’t pick at higher speeds,” he said.

“Woolworths must prioritise the safety and wellbeing of workers above all else.

“Workers all over Australia are struggling to survive in the face of more than a decade of wage stagnation compounded by ever-rising prices. The real purchasing power of wages today is lower than it was a decade ago.

“Woolworths are squeezing shoppers at the register and workers on pay and conditions, while making ever-increasing profits. This is contributing to growing wealth inequality in Australia.”

Primary Connect said safety was an inherent component of the framework and the union had asked for no measurable performance rates.

“The measure of work which sits behind the framework has been developed based on the time it should take a person with reasonable skill, applying reasonable effort, working at a safe and conscientious pace, that can be maintained for the duration of a shift, to complete a task,” the spokeswoman said.

“Our framework is intended to enable us to work with each team member to the best of their ability to ensure a fair approach to how we manage operational performance, taking into account any personal circumstances or abilities.”

The Dan Murphy’s and BWS outlets are owned by the Endeavour Group, which also owns a network of 350 pubs after its spin-off from Woolworths in June 2021.

An Endeavour Group spokeswoman said the company did not foresee “major impacts” to stock availability in stores over the Christmas period.