Warehouse worker unions are opposing a bid by Woolworths for sector-wide changes that would ensure staff at online fulfilment centres are paid like supermarket workers.
rather than customer service centres.
The retailer argued in its application that online sales had increased in food retailing and that sometimes specialist facilities rather than supermarkets fulfilled those orders.These fulfilment facilities, it argued, had similar layouts to a supermarket, with items placed on shelves and in rows, and involved “virtually the same” skills such as stocking shelves, picking orders and assembling deliveries – just with no customers.“They are warehouses. There is no customer element to it,” she said.
SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said that “as always, the SDA is working constructively with the FWC, our union colleagues and all other parties to achieve the most beneficial outcome for all workers involved”.