‘Orwellian’: Woolworths workers risking safety under ‘punitive’ tracking system, union warns

Workers have accused Woolworths of a “nefarious” workplace surveillance system that is putting the health and safety of workers at risk as they push themselves to the limit to meet increasingly “unrealistic” efficiency standards.

Warehouse workers at the supermarket giant are monitored and assessed to achieve an efficiency percentage of 100 each shift. That rate is based on an algorithm that predicts how long it will take to complete each task.

Under a new coaching and productivity framework, failure to meet that standard (without good reason) or improve their metrics could lead to disciplinary action or even job loss.

A spokesperson for Primary Connect, the supply chain arm of Woolworths, said the framework ensures a “fair approach” so that every team member can work to “the best of their ability”.

“As the nation’s largest private sector employer, we want to ensure our workplaces are safe and productive for our teams and customers,” a spokesperson told The Nightly.

But unions and Woolies employees differ.

Workers reported feeling constant pressure to fulfill orders within tighter deadlines, prompting the United Workers Union (UWU) to tell them they had to “work unsafely” to meet targets.

In a submission to the consumer watchdog, the UWU said members were told that regardless of the times in between – when there is a delay in collecting a product for a number of reasons – “pick rates of less than 100 percent could result to disciplinary measures. ”.

“It’s all shameful, and it’s been happening for a number of years,” said Dario Mujkic, the union’s national logistics director.

“Warehouse workers already do risky work when lifting heavy or bulky objects. Now you’re forcing employees to do that at a speed that may be beyond them, and they’re risking injury to meet these goals.

“But it’s not just the pressure of fear of injury, they have the fear of losing their job if they don’t meet the standard.”

Primary Connect said its ‘technical standards’ were developed to reflect how long it would take ‘a person of reasonable skill, making a reasonable effort, working at a safe and conscientious pace that can be sustained for the duration of a shift , to complete a task.”

Technical standards apply to all Australian supermarket warehouses and were first introduced in the 1980s. They are intended to be revised every two years to reflect changes in the warehouses.

“Technical standards provide us with a foundation for coaching team members who need support while ensuring we can manage the efficient movement of inventory in and out of distribution centers,” Primary Connect said in a statement.

Mr Mujkic said the UWU’s problem with Woolworths’ new framework, however, was its “punitive” approach.

“All companies have developed standards, but not all companies require employees to meet the standard, but see it as a goal,” he added.

“The problem here is the punitive approach: we will investigate and perhaps punish you if you miss the target.”

He said the UWU is in ongoing discussions with Woolworths about the framework, which was paused after thousands of union members raised formal disputes when it was introduced.

“We cannot have a system where a standard is universally applied through the threat of punishment,” Mr. Mukjic said.

“We accept that people should work to the best of their ability, and people generally do, but the company needs to work on a way to manage people’s work without applying an unfair, Orwellian and, frankly, discriminatory system .”

Primary Connect said it would work with distribution centers “in due course”.