By Callum Ludwig
Industrial action taken by some Woolworths employees has seen shelves left looking bare and the supermarket giant putting plans in place to ensure customers don’t go without.
The Yarra Junction store is one of those affected stores, with 3AW Drive host Jacqui Felgate even stating that ‘the shelves are so bare it actually gives you a bit of trauma thinking back to Covid’.
A Woolworths spokesperson said some stores in Victoria are experiencing limited stock flow on some lines due to industrial action in four of our distribution centres.
“All stores are still receiving regular deliveries of stock, in some cases at a reduced frequency. Not all stores are impacted, and the degree of stock flow challenge varies from store to store,” they said.
“We have extensive contingency plans in place to minimise any ongoing impact to customers, ensuring regular deliveries to stores utilising the other 20 DCs [distribution centres] and 8,000 team members in our network,”
“We understand this is frustrating for our customers and thank them for their patience and treating our store teams with respect.”
A delivery fruit and vegetables, chilled items, meat and milk was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday 27 November, and a further delivery containing items like bottled water and toilet paper due the following day on Thursday 28 November.
The Woolworths spokesperson said they are working hard to resolve this dispute.
“We value our team and are deeply committed to reaching an agreement as quickly as possible so they can receive the benefit of their new pay rates before Christmas,” they said.
“We have already put forward several offers with competitive pay that is above industry standards, above local market rates, above inflation, and well above the Award.”
According to the United Worker’s Union (UWU), more than 1500 warehouse workers across three distribution centres in Victoria and one in New South Wales have been on strike since Thursday 21 November seeking an ‘improved offer on safety, pay and equity.’ Staff at a fifth centre were set to launch strike action on the Friday, as reported by the ABC.
One big sticking point is the Woolworths ‘Coaching and Productivity Framework’, where warehouse staff are required to achieve a 100 per cent performance target when picking items at pace, known as the ‘pick rate’.
The union argues the framework is a ‘high-risk management approach pushing workers to work faster, which could undermine safety in a very dangerous industry’ while the supermarket chain believes it has been developed with safety as an inherent component and that the union has proposed no measurable performance rates.
The framework is supposedly ‘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.’
A spokesperson for Woolworth’s distribution network, Primary Connect, told The Conversation the Framework ensures ‘a fair approach to the standards is applied to any personal circumstances or abilities’ and has exemptions in place ‘for when a team member is unable to perform to standards, including pregnancy, disability or injury’.
Woolworths claims that less than two per cent of their team have experienced coaching or retraining under the framework to improve productivity.
UWU National Secretary Tim Kennedy said Woolworths must scrap its so-called ‘Framework’ once and for all in one of the most dangerous industries for workers in Australia.
“Workers have reported feeling pressured to cut corners and work unsafely or lose their job if they don’t pick at higher speeds. Woolworths must prioritise the safety and well-being of workers above all else,” he said.
“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 decade ago,”
“No one wants to see bare supermarket shelves in the lead-up to Christmas. Woolworths can fix this by coming back to the table and negotiating a fair agreement.”
No limits have been placed on any items available at Woolworths bar eggs, which have been in place for some time due to a bird flu outbreak in Victoria.
The industrial action is not affecting staffing in any of the stores themselves, which remain fully staffed and open.
