Massive change coming to Woolworths – and how it could set a trend in Australia

More than 130,000 Woolworths employees will be entitled to work a four-day roster following a landmark deal between the grocery giant and worker unions.

Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association backed the proposal that would give staff the option to work their 38-hour week in four 9.5-hour shifts.

The changes will be added to the new Woolworths enterprise agreement if it passes a vote from employees in the coming weeks.

As weekends are the supemarket’s busiest days, employees will be required to work up to four weekend shifts a month.

‘That could be one weekend shift per week i.e. a Saturday or a Sunday, or it could be two weekends working Saturday and Sunday, and two weekends off,’ SDA NSW secretary Bernie Smith told The Australian.

Bunnings agreed last May to trial a four-day work week for full-time employees – with other organisations and smaller businesses also experimenting with the change.

The news follows the Fair Work Commission’s endorsement of a new enterprise agreement at Coles – which will affect 92,000 workers despite objections from the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union.

The enterprise agreements at Woolworths and Coles will commit the supermarket to giving their employees annual pay rises in line with those presented by Fair Work’s annual wage review.

The approach has already delivered a 23.1 per cent increase in pay since 2018. 

Inflation during that same period rose by 19 per cent.

The commission did agree with RAFFWU that a provision in Coles’ new enterprise agreement that would allow it to unilaterally change the hours and days of work of part-time employees could be detrimental.

However, it recognised the agreement would also give part-time employees the qualified right to request increased hours – which can only be refused on reasonable business grounds.

Fair Work found the agreement passed its better-off-overall test.

‘The agreement provides terms of employment more beneficial to employees than those in the award, including marginally higher salaries,’ it said. 

The Fair Work Commission has also been busy challenging claims from employers under the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry that wages increasing faster than inflation ‘will disincentiv[ise] enterprise bargaining’.

‘Does ACCI have evidence to show that keeping modern award wage growth lower than average wage growth provides an incentive for enterprise bargaining?’ the commission asked.

The commission also challenged the ACCI’s claim an expert panel consistently awarded increases in the minimum and modern award wages that exceeded growth in inflation and the wage price index.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Woolworths for comment. 

The four-day work week is a global push to change long-entrenched working hours with success already seen in other countries like Sweden, Spain and Belgium.

Organisations such as Oxfam and Unilever have already trialled the reduced work week in Australia while auditing firm Findex and accounting firm Grant Thornton introduced nine day fortnights.