Woolworths rushes to fill shelves for Christmas shoppers after strike ends
The bitter Woolworths industrial dispute that threatened Christmas supplies ended on Saturday after the supermarket giant struck a deal with the United Workers Union.
The bitter Woolworths dispute is over after the supermarket giant struck a deal with the United Workers Union that has resulted in 1500 warehouse workers voting to return to work.
UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said the company had agreed to above-inflation pay rises and concessions about the operation of its contentious employee performance management framework.
Mr Kennedy said a new clause would be added to enterprise agreements to ensure workers would not be disciplined for the speed that they can work at, and an acknowledgment that not everybody can pick up at 100 per cent.
“The new enterprise agreement won by workers breaks the link between measuring the speed of their work and automatic punishment if they fall behind – a system that effectively attempted to treat Woolworths warehouse workers like robots,” he said.
While workers have won above inflation rises across the four sites, the amounts are significantly below the UWU’s original claim of 10 to 12 per cent a year.
The company said Woolworths’ Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre (MSRDC) will re-open as soon as Saturday night.
The Melbourne Liquor Distribution Centre, Wodonga Regional Distribution Centre and Erskine Park Distribution Centre are also expected to re-open soon and all four sites will be back up to full capacity as soon as possible, it said.
Woolworths Group CEO Amanda Bardwell welcomed the decision by workers to accept offers for “new terms and conditions and a competitive wage”.
”With just over two weeks to go until Christmas, we’re now focused on getting products out of the Distribution Centres and restocking the empty shelves customers have experienced in the past fortnight,” she said.
“Turning back ‘on’ such a large part of our supply chain will mean it will take some time for our stores to look their best and we’ll be ramping up as much as we can to get products to the stores where they’re needed most.
“We would once again like to apologise to our customers. We know how frustrating it has been to shop in store and online with us in recent weeks in Victoria, the ACT and parts of NSW. We thank all of them sincerely for their understanding and patience.”
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