Penalties Retained

The Agreements are in most respects identical.  The wages are the same; variations occur only from different anniversary dates. All three Agreements retain the 75% penalty for work on Saturdays and 100% for work on Sundays, and the adult rate of pay for anyone engaged in the duties of Cabinet Attendant, despite attempts by both Safeway and Coles/BiLo to eliminate penalties either immediately or by phasing them out over time.

Pressure

It is to the credit of this Union's supermarket members that this major benefit has been retained.  Coles/BiLo and Safeway have each exerted considerable pressure on members over a number of years to give up this significant wage benefit.  The most recent was Safeway.  Safeway members were involved in three weeks of rolling stoppages and protest to protect this condition for themselves, and importantly, for future employees at Safeway.

History  

It is important for supermarket workers to understand that the weekend and night penalties were agreed to as compensation for workers agreeing to extend their normal hours of work throughout the 7 day extended shopping week.  Unfortunately not long after the shopping hours were extended, with the Union's assistance, both supermarket companies began to try and withdraw the penalties.  
 

Conditions Lost by SDA

The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), is party to agreements in Coles/BiLo and Safeway/Woolworths in areas outside the meat room in Victoria, and including the meat room in some other States. The SDA gave up the Saturday penalty and half of the Sunday penalty years ago.  They have also given up rostered days off and have allowed many other long standing conditions to be eroded. 

Efforts to Usurp AMIEU

The inability of the SDA to resist any demand placed on them by the employer means that those employers are always seeking to rid themselves of the AMIEU and replace us with the SDA.  Safeway/Woolworths have been successful in Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales and BiLo in Queensland.  Coles and the SDA secretly negotiated an Agreement in Victoria in 1993 but swift and decisive industrial action by Coles members meant that Coles quickly abandoned that plan and renegotiated with us.

Cabinet Attendants

Another long standing benefit under Victorian AMIEU supermarket Agreements employers persist in trying to remove is the adult rate of pay for cabinet attendant work. 

The following example illustrates through a combination of wage rates, penalties and use of juniors, why the supermarkets are so keen to negotiate with the SDA.

SDA Agreements

The SDA BiLo and Coles Agreements cover meat rooms in other States.  They have two classifications of workers; meat packer and butcher/apprentice. The meat packer is defined as:

"an employee engaged to perform a range of duties associated with operation of a meat department, including:

customer service assistance;

preparation for sale of fresh foods and merchandise;

stock replenishment;

general cleaning in accordance with normal requirements;

receipt and storage of stock and produce;

other general store duties;

incidental clerical and administrative duties on a needs basis;

merchandising, point of sale duties."

AMIEU Victoria

The AMIEU Agreement does not allow many of these tasks, restricts some of the work to those 18 years and over, but would require adult rate to be paid to anyone, regardless of age, who was asked to do these tasks.

Pay Rates

The Woolworths NSW/ACT and Woolworths SA, NT and Broken Hill Agreements have classifications which basically allow the same range of duties as the Coles SDA Agreement.  The Safeway rates vary by only a few dollars.

The SDA arrangement gives a very large incentive to employers to employ only juniors.  This arrangement also suits the SDA.  The SDA maximizes its income through the use of juniors working shorter hours.

The differential for butchers is not so great.  However it is still considerable at weekends:

These enormous differences make it very attractive for supermarkets and particularly store managers, to attempt to get work done in the meat rooms under SDA conditions.

Misuse of Juniors

The misuse of juniors happens particularly on weekends.  Junior clean up staff employed under SDA conditions are often told to go and help out in the meat room.  Initially it may be to help wrap meat, but it often increases to helping out on the cabinets. 

Underpayments

Under the AMIEU Victorian Agreements at Coles, BiLo and Safeway, all work on the case is paid at the adult rate.  This provision is often ignored and juniors continue to be paid their junior rate whilst working on the cabinets.  Also the weekend penalties that apply are often ignored.  This has led to very large sums of money as underpayment being owed to those workers. 

Money Recovered for AMIEU Members

The Union has now settled many of these claims with both Safeway and Coles/BiLo.  We recently obtained $22,612.06 in back pay for a 17 year old schoolboy who was employed part time by Safeway for over 2.5 years under the SDA conditions, rather than the AMIEU conditions.

We will continue to prosecute these claims as they are contrary to our Agreement, and they constitute a threat to our adult members.  However we cannot provide assistance to anyone who is not in the Union, or not prepared to join the Union on an ongoing basis.

Prevent Loss of Wages and Conditions

Don't Become Complacent

The only reason that Safeway/Woolworths and Coles/BiLo can reduce your conditions, as they have in other States and in other sections of your supermarket, is if the Union and supermarket meat room workers become complacent. 

When workers believe that it is no longer necessary to join the Union, or that employers give you your conditions because they value your contribution to the company's profits, or when workers decide they will bludge on the efforts of their fellow workers, employers will soon move to reduce your pay and conditions.

Union Membership

It is essential that membership of the Union be maintained at as high a level as possible.  We need to be prepared to explain to non-members the benefits of Union membership as well as the dangers for future conditions if the Union is weakened by lower membership.

Industrial Action

Safeway members in particular should remind any non-Union members that the penalties they enjoy on weekends were retained for them by strike action taken by existing members who refused to trade off future workers conditions.

New Employees

Although Coles, BiLo and Safeway have undertaken as part of the EBA to promote membership of the Union, this does not always happen. 

It is necessary for current members to ask whether new employees have been told about this Union and why they should join it.  Union organizers should also be informed, so that they also can explain the benefit of Union membership.

Weekend Workers

There may be some workers who only work on weekends and who have not had a Union application for membership card given to them.  They should be asked to join the Union, and the Union organiser notified.