Coles cash for ‘health and safety’

Coles has strongly defended paying the shopworkers union for training.

Coles has strongly defended payments to the powerful shopworkers union to conduct training, claiming the payments met health and safety laws, despite the retailer coming under fire for striking a workplace deal that allegedly left workers worse off.

The full bench of the Fair Work Commission is considering an ­appeal by part-time Coles worker Duncan Hart against the deal between his employer and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association that covers the retailer’s 77,000 workers.

An analysis by Mr Hart’s team showed the agreement, endorsed by more than 90 per cent of the workforce, paid below the legal safety net and stripped entitlements. Mr Hart claimed the deal failed the “better off overall” test that applies under industrial law and it should never have been ratified by Fair Work.

However, in submissions to the commission obtained by The Australian, Coles and the union stressed that the agreement conferred non-financial benefits that left workers better off. Coles and the SDA, which is also a registered training organisation, also dismissed criticisms of payments to the union for occupational health and safety training.

“All state workplace regulators require elected health and safety representatives to undertake cccupational health and safety training,” a Coles spokesman said.

“It is a legal requirement that this training be conducted by a registered training organisation accredited by the relevant Worksafe regulator.” The payments to the SDA would be less than $25,000 a year, he said.

Legal experts said the case could radically change how retailers negotiated enterprise deals with the deeply conservative SDA.

The union was embarrassed last year when the commission ordered a variation to the Coles deal that included a pay rise for casual workers of up to 10 per cent, costing the retailer $15 million.

The SDA has long been criticised by left-wing unions for “sweetheart deals” paying near-award rates with large retailers, who help the union’s recruitment efforts. The SDA’s high membership gives it huge influence in the ALP, where it has shaped abortion and same-sex marriage policy.

Mr Hart’s submission, supported by Josh Cullinan, a representative of the left-wing Tertiary Education Union, said: “When wages, penalties and overtime are considered, employees are worse off under the agreement than under the award. The scale of the detriment is both substantial and significant.”

Industrial relations expert Andrew Stewart, a University of ­Adelaide law professor, said it would be “a major embarrassment for both Coles and the SDA if it turns out they’ve got this wrong”.

“You wouldn’t ordinarily have anyone asking any serious questions about the test, but clearly they have in this case,” he said.

SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said if the appeal succeeded, there would be “a whole lot of Coles employees wanting to know why their agreement was knocked down”. He dismissed any criticism of his union for receiving the training payments, saying: “I would struggle to think of any peak trade union body in the country (that didn’t provide training).”