A Coles supermarket worker has won the first round of a David and Goliath battle which exposes a major union to claims it sold out its own workers.
Duncan Hart, a student who works part time at a Coles supermarket in Brisbane, took action in the Fair Work Commission claiming that the enterprise bargaining agreement between Coles and his union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), left thousands of workers worse off.
In a decision published on Tuesday, the Fair Work Commission granted Mr Hart the right to appeal the approval of the EBA, saying there was an argument to be made the deal failed what is known as the 'better off overall test' (BOOT).
For a workplace agreement to be legal, all employees must be made better off when an agreement is compared to the award.
The Coles agreement in question, which was approved by the Fair Work Commission in July, mandates a higher hourly base rate for supermarket workers, but cuts penalty rates for weekends and nights.
Mr Hart argued this left a substantial proportion of Coles' workforce worse off than if they were paid under the existing award.
In their decision, the commissioners said the agreement should be further tested to ensure it passed the BOOT for all of the 77,507 Coles and Bi-Lo workers covered by the deal.
"We are of the view that confidence in the agreement approval process would be enhanced if all the material intended to be relied upon by Mr Hart is considered," the commissioners wrote.
"We propose to grant permission to appeal and allow parties to lead such additional evidence as they see fit.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-27/coles-employee-wins-right-to-appeal-over-workplace-deal/688984...
_______________________________________________
I wonder the outcome. I tend to think the workers have been hard done by in some cases.
DEB
