Hundreds stood down at Coles DC, Goulburn

In an application to the national industrial umpire today, Coles applied to stop what it says is unlawful industrial action by workers at its Goulburn food distribution centre.

An application to Fair Work Australia tendered by Coles this morning says Coles expects the strike that started yesterday at Coles' National Distribution Centre in Somerton, in Melbourne's north, to spread.

In response Coles was believed to have stood down hundreds of workers at its Goulburn distribution centre.

Coles spokesman Jim Cooper issued this statement:

“This morning at 8am, 76 workers at the Coles Goulburn distribution centre walked off the job, despite being advised that this would constitute unprotected industrial action.

"The team members subsequently returned to work at 12.30pm and the distribution centre has continued to operate normally throughout the day.

"This afternoon Fair Work Australia has granted orders to prevent any further unprotected industrial action at key Coles distribution centre sites in NSW.”

NUW representative Mark Ptolemy said that the cause of the problem wasn’t directly connected with the Goulburn distribution centre.

“The trouble at the Goulburn distribution plant wasn’t strike action as such, but the early morning shift workers were sent home for 4 hours this morning (Wednesday), pending further negotiations and had their pay docked accordingly”, said

“The workers had also raised concerns about having to take all the ‘flak’ from the Somerton centre, but they are in united in solidarity with the Melbourne boys and girls, and feel that they shouldn’t have to cop it either.”

Mr. Ptolemy also expressed that Coles had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the workers busy with the extra workload.

“Apparently Coles has made an application with Fair Work Australia (FWA) to force their workers to take on the extra workload.

“We believe that Coles need not be so heavy- handed and aggressive when negotiating terms to their workers. Whether this is an issue of greed or another ulterior motive by Coles to put the guys in Victoria off, I suppose we’ll never know.

“So I believe that this knee-jerk reaction to send the workers home for 4 hours this morning was ‘bunged on’ by Coles themselves,” he said.

Finally, Mr. Ptolemy stated that Coles needs to take a more ‘softly,softly’ approach when negotiating with their employees.

“Rather than trying to bully them in to working harder, Coles management should try to be less aggressive and use more conciliatory tactics,” he said.

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