A Coles Shelf-Stacker Is Challenging Her Wage; It Could Change How Thousands of Workers Are Paid

A Brisbane Coles worker has challenged an agreement that her union struck with Coles in 2011.

Penny Vickers, who works the night shift at Coles stacking shelves, has complained she is not better off under the enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) that her union, Shop Distributive & Allied Employees Association (SDA), signed in 2011. The EBA replaced penalty rates with an overall increase to the hourly rate.

EBAs are essentially a union invention that aim to create the best possible arrangement for both the worker and the employer. In most cases, it is the introduction of an increased hourly rate in exchange for removed penalty rates.

Most Australians working in retail and hospitality are under such agreements, which has effectively decreased the amount of workers who receive penalty rates.

The Fair Work Commission's decision to cut penalty rates in February meant that many employees working in retail and hospitality already on EBAs were, in some cases, being paid more than their peers.

Usually, swapping penalty rates for EBAs is a fair trade, as judged by the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT), introduced by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in 2009. BOOT aims to ensure employees are better off, in terms of pay, under the agreement than otherwise.

Vickers explained to the ABC that she, however, was not better off under the agreement as she had to work later hours without penalty awards.

”We find ourselves in this situation where day staff are paid substantially above the award, if they only work 8.30am to 5pm, and night staff are paid substantially below the award," she said.

An industrial relations specialist, Sydney barrister Jeffrey Phillips, also spoke to the ABC, to explain that the wording around BOOT was likely to cause its downfall.

"Now if enterprise agreements can be upset because one or two people are able to say, 'Well look at my situation, my situation is such that I'm not any better off, in fact I'm worse off,' that would have the effect of bringing the whole house down," he said.

There are 74,000 workers under the 2011 agreement, which means that if Vickers wins, thousands of others could follow suit.

The main thing to take away from all of this is that if you're working pretty crummy hours right now and getting paid the same as your coworkers who work great hours, the tide is changing my friend.

Photo: iStock