Supermarket workers get $2-an-hour pay rise

Thursday, 8 October 2020

A worker at Countdown’s new ‘dark store’ in Wellington. Unionised Countdown supermarket workers have received a big bump in pay.

A Countdown supermarket worker says a new pay rise will make a world of difference to many of his colleagues.

Around 7000 unionised workers at the supermarket chain have received their first pay under a collective agreement signed last November, which will pay workers with 12 month service a minimum of $21.15 an hour – the ‘’living wage’’ last year.

First Union said that for many workers, the deal would raise their wages by almost $2 an hour. Non-unionised workers will get their raise in December.

Isaac Mullin, a union delegate and an assistant department manager at Countdown Fielding, said that after eight years in his job, the rise was personally very satisfying.

But the impact on the wider workforce would be even greater.

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'I know that for lots of people, this means more time with their families and more money to spend on them,’’ he said.

Countdown has about 18,000, and the new agreement will have implications for 15,000 of them.

'So many people have been saying to me over the last couple of days that they didn’t realise it was going to be such a big increase in their pay – it will make a huge difference.'

First Union’s secretary for retail and finance workers, Tali Williams, said union members at Countdown stores would now receive the highest pay, on average, of all supermarket workers in New Zealand.

However, many non-unionised workers at New World and Pak’n’Save, owned by Foodstuffs, were still being paid minimum wage for most entry-level roles, she said.

‘’Even in unionised stores, the fight for better pay and conditions always happens store by store rather than as a workforce.

'The pandemic has highlighted how reliant we are on our essential workers and the new pay scales take effect at a time when retaining and valuing our supermarket staff is more important than ever.’’