Woolworths Customer Care Workers Won’t Give Up Their Rights And Will Strike Again Today

Workers First Union members at the Woolworths Customer Care Call Centre will strike again today despite being ‘locked out’ by the company following their first strike action on Monday this week.

"This is the second day of strike action by our Woolworths members because they are concerned that negotiations are going nowhere," said Elle Sun-Min Park, Workers First Union organiser. "It’s not a decision made lightly - every dollar counts in December."

Ms Park said that pay was not the primary issue for union members in the dispute, but protection of their existing rights. Current proposals by the company involved significant ‘clawbacks’ (reductions to existing conditions); including requiring workers to have a ‘flexi-start time’ - meaning they would be required to be available for twelve hours a day but only be paid for eight - and removing a current Collective Agreement clause that allows workers one day of a weekend off to spend time with their family and friends.

"Our members are also really worried about Woolworths’ insistence on the unilateral update to their ‘work from home’ agreement that workers were made to sign, including returning to the office on four weeks’ notice," said Ms Park. "Many of the workers were recruited on permanent remote working conditions or have since relocated their families and lives outside Auckland, with Woolworths’ full awareness."

"Many are working parents or looking after their elderly parents, and they’ve applied specifically for this job because it offers fixed permanent hours of work, having one weekend day off, and permanent remote working conditions."

"It’s just not feasible to uproot your family’s life and breach your rental agreement or sell your house to return to Auckland at the drop of a hat because the company suddenly says it's in their interest."

"It’s disappointing that the company chose to lock these workers out and make them lose a full day’s pay at Christmas time because they used their democratic right to strike over surface-level bargaining."

"It remains to be seen whether or not the company will again lock them out and take a full day’s pay from them today for taking another three-hour strike action. It’s a despicable tactic to use, but members will still not be bullied into silence."

Members at the Woolworths Customer Care Centre - which is heavily unionised - were served a ‘lockout’ notice on Monday by email fifteen minutes before the conclusion of their strike action at 2pm, informing them that they would not be paid for the rest of the working day.

© Scoop Media