Lockdown bonus removed for supermarket workers

Thursday, 23 April 2020

Supermarket workers are upset that their pay rises are being rolled back as the country comes out of level four lockdown.

Foodstuffs and Countdown each gave essential staff a 10 per cent pay boost for working through the four-week lockdown.

But workers have now been told that is coming to an end. Countdown staff said they were told the return to their normal rate of pay would take effect on Thursday. Foodstuffs said it was extending the bonus to Monday.

The initial four weeks of level four expired on Wednesday and the country will move to level three on Tuesday.

Countdown said it would continue to offer staff an increased discount on their groceries.

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First Union secretary for retail, finance and commerce Tali Williams said it was a bad move by the supermarkets..

'This is a backwards step, and supermarket workers are understandably angry and feeling pretty crushed,' she said.

'After finally getting the recognition they deserve for holding their communities together during a crisis, it seems that Countdown and Foodstuffs don't think they're worth a living wage after all.

'Workers are risking their safety, often for poverty wages, so that the rest of us can stay home and eliminate the spread of Covid-19 in New Zealand as we've been asked to do.

'Nobody should be earning less than the living wage while they put their lives on the line during a pandemic that has already killed over 180,000 people globally where essential workers are especially vulnerable.'

She said supermarket workers would continue to have a greater risk of infection than the general public in alert level three.

A Countdown spokesperson said the bonus was designed to recognise the essential service the supermarket's team had provided New Zealanders during the lockdown, and the weeks preceding it, when the business experienced 'incredibly high' levels of demand.

'Since this time, we've put in place a raft of safety measures to create a more controlled environment for our team, and thankfully, we've also seen demand from customers calm down. This, along with the recruitment of more than 1700 new team members, has helped the business to get back into a more normal, less stressful, trading rhythm.

'Countdown has paid, and will continue to pay, any of our team members whom the government has deemed to be high risk to Covid-19 including those over 70, immune-deficient and those with serious chronic illness. We're also continuing our increased food discount of 10 per cent for all team members.'

In September, Countdown will give staff a pay rise so that they earn at least $21.15 an hour once they have been with the company for a year.

Foodstuffs spokeswoman Antoinette Laird said supermarket owners and teams had done an 'incredible job' ensuring households had their grocery needs met.

'Supporting our people remains utmost in our minds and the need to get the balance right is imperative as we prepare for a journey back to business as usual.

'As the country moves out of alert level four it makes sense that wages return to normal and owners usual business processes pick up again including undertaking employee pay reviews and rewarding their teams independently for their hard work.'

One supermarket employee, who could not be identified, said it was unfair. She said she was more upset at the loss of recognition of the work they were doing than the money itself.

Supermarket staff were the only retail employees expected to routinely serve customers face-to-face under level three restrictions, she said. 'It's no different to alert level four for us. We are still the only ones out there and we still don't have a choice… we are more at risk than medical staff because they only see 20 or 30 people a day but we see hundreds. Queues of people. Our risk is higher than anybody's.'

First Union is starting a campaign to support supermarket workers.

'We're calling on New Zealanders to bring a heart, draw a heart, wear a heart when you're doing your normal shopping over the coming weeks,' Williams said.

'An A4 or A3 bit of paper fits nicely on to the front of a supermarket trolley so you can communicate your and your family's message of support for workers while calling on their bosses to show some heart and continue paying these workers fairly, now and into the future.'