Coles has finally acknowledged that it will have to cough up on back pay for meat workers.
After wasting millions of dollars on lawyers at the Fair Work Commission trying to defend its dodgy deal with the SDA, Coles has now finally admitted that meat workers will receive back payments.
Documents seen by the AMIEU show that Coles is now preparing to go through their national roster of meat workers and calculate how much is owed – a strange about-face from the company which just last month was insisting that “no employee was worse off” under its agreement with the SDA.
Instead it turns out – just like the AMIEU has been saying all along – that the SDA and Coles knew their deal would mean a pay cut for meat workers, and did everything possible to hide the facts. Now they’re finally admitting that it’s time to pay up.
The AMIEU has been campaigning since day one to highlight just how unfair the Coles/SDA deal was. We pressed our concerns with the full bench of the Fair Work Commission and were rewarded when they ruled that the agreement did not pass the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT).
Members of the AMIEU will be working very carefully over the coming weeks and months to make sure that they get what they are owed when Coles coughs up.
While this is great news, the fight goes on. We will be negotiating with Coles for a better agreement that gets you the money you deserve. If you’re not already a member of the AMIEU, now is the time to get on board and join to be part of a better future.
Coles blocks members from voting
The AMIEU attempted to ask members if they would consider taking industrial action to achieve a better deal during the upcoming negotiations with Coles.
Unfortunately, Coles is refusing to bargain and has successfully stopped us from applying for a Protected Action Ballot in the FWC, preventing our members from exercising their rights as a worker.
If a company refuses to meet, being able to take lawful industrial action is a part of the bargaining that Coles is trying to ignore.
The AMIEU is working on appealing the decision. If we are successful, members will receive a form asking them whether they would support taking Protected Action. Members need to answer YES to all of the questions on this form.