Coles forced to pay casual workers 10pc more

Coles will be forced to pay $15m more to casual workers after the industrial relations umpire tore up an enterprise bargain.

Coles will be forced to pay $15 million more to casual workers after the industrial relations umpire tore up an enterprise bargain struck with the shop assistants union, rejecting the deal on the grounds it failed to leave workers “better off overall”.

A day after the royal commission heard a slew of evidence of cosy arrangements between ­unions and employers to the detriment of workers, the Fair Work Commission certified an agreement that dictates the wages for Coles employees but partially ­unwinds the deal the supermarket struck between the supermarket and the retail union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association in May.

Coles and the SDA had drafted an enterprise agreement sent to the Fair Work Commission earlier this year.

It was accompanied by sworn evidence that the arrangement paid workers less than the legal minimum, including ­statutory declarations from the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, which had been part of the negotiations.

In a rare intervention in the ­retail industry, the commission then sought changes to the deal from Coles, including offering the supermarket’s 27,765-strong casual workforce pay rises of up to 10 per cent.

Coles agreed to the pay changes last month, and yesterday the commission certified the deal.

Under the new agreement, adult casual workers receive 5 per cent more pay than they would have, while 17-year-olds ­receive 10 per cent more, and 18-year-old casuals receive 7.5 per cent more.

Non-casual 17 and 18-year-olds will also be paid more than they would have under the previous deal. There was no concession on the deal for the rest of the workforce, however, which will be paid less than the award overall, ­according to an analysis submitted to the commission.

Graeme Smith, national secretary of the AMIEU, yesterday welcomed the commission’s intervention, but said it had not gone far enough, and that the enterprise agreement left the majority of the long-term workforce “underpaid”.

“The original deal was ­obviously worse; there are a number of areas where they’ve had to cough up, but this is still a pretty weak ­decision and there are a number of areas that have been identified as paying less than the legal minimum.”

Mr Smith said the commission was right to intervene, but added: “That shouldn’t be the role of the commission, that should be the role of the negotiators to fix that.”

There needed to be “extra ­scrutiny” of agreements between Coles and the SDA, he added.

Josh Cullinan, senior industrial officer at the National Tertiary Education Union, which was not a party to the agreement, also sent evidence to the Fair Work commission in a private capacity emphasising that the deal left workers worse off.

“Never before have so many low-paid workers benefited from the intervention of the broader community in spite of a deal done by an employer and a so-called union,” Mr Cullinan said.

He added: “However ... many thousands of ongoing adult staff will be worse off, particularly those who work on weekends and in the evening.”

Coles director of operations Andy Coleman said: “The Fair Work Commission has endorsed Coles’ new store team agreement, which will deliver increased benefits, including a 3 per cent base wage increase to more than 75,000 team members.

“The agreement that has been approved by the FWC is substantially the same deal that our team members voted overwhelmingly to approve in a ballot in May.”