Woolworths staff are feeling anxious and scared about a proposed restructure for the supermarket chain’s workforce, the union representing them says.
Woolworths says it is consulting with staff on proposed changes to its store operating model.
“Our customers are looking to us to improve their shopping experience, and we believe that our proposed model would put the right expertise in the right place at the right time to do exactly that. It would mean more team on the store floor helping customers, ensuring the products they need are on the shelves, and improving our overall service and experience when they shop with us,” a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Woolworths had also heard from staff that the leadership opportunities in stores were not as appealing as they could be.
The proposed model would include clearer career pathways and opportunities, and more money invested into training.
“The proposed model would not result in a reduction of Woolworths New Zealand’s overall team size.
“We’ve trialled the proposed model in four of our stores for six months. During that time, we’ve taken on board feedback from our local customers, team and First Union. We’ve heard from customers that the proposed model means they’ve been able to get more of what they need in store, when they want it. We’ve learned along the way and made tweaks like adding an additional leader in some stores and distributing tasks more evenly across different store areas.”
Woolworths was now looking at how it might roll the model out across the country but would listen to feedback before final decisions were made, the spokesperson added.
A slide to explain the proposed changes said the idea was to move from working in departments to working “together for customers”.
It said that store leaders said the current model made it difficult to run shops efficiently.
Each shop would have the same number of staff but they would be more focused on customers. Woolworths said more than half the staff in the trial had felt it was an improvement.
But staff told media that there were fears that managers could lose their jobs and have their roles combined depending on the size of each supermarket.
First Union national retail organiser Ross Lampert said there were fears that it could mean a pay cut for some staff. He said many people were affected, including store management.
“I think it’s a genuine concern. The proposal impacts people in various ways.
“Workers are feeling very anxious, scared and frustrated, sometimes angry about what’s been presented to them.
“There’s a lot of concern here.”
He said the union had raised concerns about the legality of what had been proposed.
“The company is entitled to restructure but they need to be considering the impacts on their team members.”
Many of the problems highlighted as reasons for the restructure could be solved with more staffing, Lampert said.
“They implement everything else under the sun, rather than getting more people on the floor… our main point is that we need to make sure that members and generally the workers are putting in their thoughts and concerns around the problems they see with the proposal.”
