Yahoo Finance Coles worker rejects 'slap in the face' offer from supermarket giant
Tony Williams has been working for Coles for 16 years and says the supermarket's latest move is “insulting”.
A Coles worker has slammed the supermarket’s proposed enterprise agreement as “a slap in the face”, as workers struggle with rising costs and face abuse from customers.
Tony Williams has been working for Coles for more than 16 years and is employed part-time in the supermarket’s fresh produce department.
The Melbourne resident said the past few years had been “rough” on him and other Coles workers, with staff members often facing verbal abuse from frustrated customers.
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“[COVID] was one of the very few times where you actually felt like customers acknowledged that you were human and there was a whole thing about being essential workers and we were doing important work to keep people fed,” Williams told Yahoo Finance.
“As inflation ramped up and as cost-of-living pressures increased, we became the brunt of that as the face of price-gouging and the face of shortages that were happening.”
Williams is among those calling for better wages and working conditions for Coles employees and says staff are “getting shafted” by the agreement proposed to workers last week.
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The new agreement, which requires majority support from Coles and Liquorland’s 120,000 staff before going to Fair Work, will set wages and conditions for four years.
The SDA retail, fast food and warehouse union is endorsing the agreement and says benefits include increased minimum hours for part-timers, access to additional hours, super on paid and unpaid parental leave and additional leave benefits.
The agreement also offers a one-off digital Coles gift card to staff members - $600 for full-time workers, $250 for part-timers and $150 for casuals. The union said that would be “welcome money in the pocket for workers confronting significant cost-of-living pressures”.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) is urging staff to vote down the agreement, arguing it doesn’t guarantee real wage increases that would keep pace with inflation and provides no safety rights for workers.
Under the proposal, a level one Coles worker would earn $25.27 per hour. This is just 54 cents above the award base rate.
About 85 per cent of Coles’ workforce are part-time or casual, meaning many will not get the full $600 gift-card boost.
Workers ‘can’t afford to shop at Coles’
RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan said he’d been hearing from Coles workers who were struggling to make ends meet and couldn’t even afford to buy food from their own workplace.
“Many of our members, particularly those that aren’t full-time, are not only struggling but unable to get by,” Cullinan told Yahoo Finance.
“Workers at Coles can’t afford to shop at Coles and it’s the same as Woolies. They rely on charities to be able to get food, they go without meals so their kids can eat, they don’t have many of the necessities and are going into debt on loans and credit cards.
“That’s all because of these massive increases. These workers are far more likely to not own their homes and be renting, and rental prices have gone through the roof. Like everyone else, they need to meet the costs of electricity, gas, water.”
With Coles posting an annual profit of $1.1 billion last financial year, Williams said the proposed agreement was “insulting” and noted the gift-card offer was a short-term boost that ultimately went back into the pockets of the company.
“It's a real sort of slap in the face to have this company that’s making so much money and is facing all of this public criticism for their policies around pricing and the way they are choosing to profiteer off economic circumstances, to turn around and give you 50 cents,” Williams said.
Williams, who also works as a casual teaching associate at Monash University, said rising costs had forced him to become more conscious of how he spent his money and he no longer bought lunch or ingredients for dinner at Coles after a shift.
“It’s harder to justify. What you used to get away with for a $5 cheap lunch is near double that now,” he said.
“So, you just bring something you’ve made yourself at home or hope they’ve brought in some of yesterday’s baked stuff to put in the tea room for us to eat.”
Coles ‘working hard’ to listen to staff
SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said hundreds of its delegates at Coles had endorsed the proposed agreement and said feedback from its members had been positive.
"Given the significant benefits for members, the SDA is recommending the agreement be endorsed,” Dwyer said.
A Coles spokesperson said the supermarket had been “working hard” to listen to team members and their bargaining representatives to craft a proposal that provided benefits to staff and supported its operations.
“The proposed enterprise agreement provides several benefits in addition to greater flexibility, including maintaining above-award base rates of pay for almost 100,000 of our team, a mechanism for future wage rate increases, and enhances several leave entitlements,” the spokesperson said.
Workers have until 8:00pm AEDT on Sunday to vote on the agreement.
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