Woolworths has won its application to clear a picket line at one of its key distribution centres in Melbourne, and prevent similar action at other sites, after arguing that the industrial protests were being used as a “metaphorical gun” during negotiations over pay and conditions.
The Fair Work Commission’s deputy president, Gerard Boyce, found on Friday that the United Workers Union (UWU) had engaged in “unlawful picketing” to hinder access to warehouses, and that the union had therefore not met good faith bargaining requirements.
“The instance has not been a one off instance; it has continued,” Boyce said.
“It is clearly affecting third parties, including individual employees who wish to return to the work site, management and transporters or truck drivers of goods who seek to enter the work site.”
Worker strikes at five distribution centres – including the picketed regional distribution centre in Melbourne’s southern suburb of Dandenong – have disrupted grocery supplies at some Woolworths stores, leading to bare shelves and reduced sales in the pre-Christmas trading period.
More than 1,500 Woolworths warehouse workers have been on strike since 21 November seeking better pay and safety. They are being supported by the UWU.
While the hearing was primarily focused on the large Dandenong picket, Woolworths representatives successfully argued there had been a “pattern of picketing action”, prompting the FWC to release broad orders that cover union action on other sites.
The FWC orders mean that the Dandenong picket will need to start allowing access to the distribution site by Friday night.
The union is seeking a pay increase to at least $38 an hour for staff and wants Woolworths to scrap a productivity framework it has described as “punitive”. Pay rates vary across warehouses operated by Woolworths’ supply chain arm, Primary Connect, as they have separate agreements.
The supermarket’s legal representative, Marc Felman KC, said the picket undermined the bargaining process.
“It’s obstructive, it’s either actually preventing vehicles and people from coming on to the site or having the effect of vehicles and people not coming on to the site,” Felman said. “There’s a picket. It’s capricious or unfair. It should be stopped.”
Felman described the picket as a “metaphorical gun” pointed at Woolworths, designed to pressure the supermarket during negotiations.
Woolworths has previously said “a majority of the team” at the south Melbourne regional distribution centre had indicated they wished to return to work to be paid – but were prevented from doing so due to the picket.
There was conflicting evidence from Woolworths and the union over whether the supermarket could feasibly operate the Dandenong warehouse while many workers remained on strike.
Woolworths said earlier this week it had lost $50m in grocery sales since the start of the strikes.
At a press conference in Melbourne earlier on Friday, the UWU national secretary, Tim Kennedy, said the Fair Work hearing was a distraction.
He said the outcome wouldn’t change anything because the right of workers to strike “under law continues on until we reach agreement”.
Kennedy said Woolworths management was beginning to understand concerns regarding an algorithmic framework that measured workers’ output by the minute.
“These warehouses are dangerous places to work in, people get injured in them, they can actually get killed in them, and if you privilege speed over safety, you do a lot of damage, and so the nature of this dispute is not purely just about money,” the union leader said.
Workers were prepared to return to work once an in-principle agreement was struck with Woolworths and workers voted on the deal, Kennedy said on Friday.
