Farmers department store must step up and pay workers the living wage, Union says

Tuesday, 2 February 2021

Hundred of retails workers protest in favour of living wage, picketing outside St Lukes' Countdown, in 2019.

The Farmers department store chain, which cut staff numbers and pay during Covid-19, needs to do the right thing now that retail sales have improved and pay its staff the living wage, First Union says

First Union, which represents about 800 Farmers workers, is heading into collective agreement bargaining with the company in March. Farmers cut some staff pay by 20 per cent during Covid-19 last year, made some staff redundant and was paid $28 million in Government wage subsidies.

“Retailers are doing a whole lot better than what was originally imagined post-Covid, because New Zealanders are staying put in the country, and they are spending their money here – that’s what the evidence shows,” said First Union’s retail, finance and commerce divisional secretary Tali Williams.

“They should funnel any money that they have, seeing as they seem to be doing quite well, into giving people a fair pay rise and paying them fairly and paying them better than what they have been.”

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The Farmers department store chain should funnel any money from a retail rebound back to their workers, a lot of whom had cuts to their hours or wages during the Covid-19 pandemic, First Union says.

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Tali Williams from First Union is calling on the Farmers department store chain to pay its workers The living wage.

First Union negotiated the living wage, a rate that is said to allow workers to participate fully in society, with many retailers in 2019 and expects the same result from its negotiations with Farmers, she said.

“There is no excuse for them to be paying less than living wages for the retail workers. A lot of these people did cop wage cuts or hours cuts during the Covid period. Now is the time to be doing right by them and paying them living wages and ensuring they have decent hours.”

Farmers is part of the retail empire presided over by Auckland couple Anne and David Norman. The NBR Rich List estimated the family’s wealth at $560m in 2019 through their ownership of jewellery chains Pascoes, Stewart Dawsons, Prouds, Goldmark, and Angus & Cootes, as well as homewares chain Stevens, Farmers, and bookstore Whitcoulls.

The Norman family’s retail business has been criticised by philanthropist Grant Nelson for claiming more than $35m in wage subsidies which he believes is contributing to the transfer of wealth to those who are already well off.

The retail industry has bounced back from the Covid-19 lockdown and the money should be returned so the Government can use it for those in need, he said.

Williams said wage bargaining with Farmers was always “absolutely tumultuous”, taking a long time to settle and with rates well below others in the industry.

“They are a poor paying employer – a minimum wage employer,” she said.

Discount supermarket chain Pak ’n Save, which people might associate with poor wages, paid much better than Farmers, she said.

The adult minimum wage is $18.90 an hour, and is set to rise to $20 an hour from April 1.

The Living Wage is $22.10 an hour.

The Norman family company, James Pascoe, did not respond to requests for comment.