Coles and Woolworths strikes: What are my supermarket opening hours this weekend?

Shoppers Bare shelves may be seen across the country this weekend as hundreds of staff walk off the job in the first-ever national supermarket strike.

Workers represented by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RFFWU) will stop working at stores in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT for two hours from 10am on Saturday.

The strike will affect both Coles and Woolworths stores amid growing criticism of the two supermarket chains, which the union said were paying “poverty wages” to workers despite putting themselves at risk during the Covid pandemic.

The strike is the first of its kind nationally in Australia and as many as 1000 union members are expected to participate.

Federal RFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan said staff were fighting for higher wages, safer workplaces and secure jobs.

“Workers are paid a few cents more than minimum wage,” he said.

“They just want a living wage to deal with the rising cost of living. They can’t even afford the groceries they sell.’

Mr Cullinan also said he wanted temporary workers to be given ongoing jobs and for action to be taken against violence in stores.

“They just want to have more hours in their contract that they can rely on,” Cullinan said.

‘Mega companies that make mega profits must be able to provide this.

“We also want it to be treated as a crime if an employee is assaulted or abused. The level of abuse, threats, intimidation and attacks is unprecedented and outrageous.

‘Employers won’t lift a finger to stop this.’

Will my supermarket be open?

The strike action will take place on Saturday from 10am to 12pm in select stores across the country.

Both Coles and Woolworths said they expect no disruption to opening hours.

There will also be industrial action at the stores on Friday, prompting accusations of retaliation.

The RAFFWU claimed that Coles said it would fire any employee who implemented the stop-work ban.

“Coles pays poverty wages and then threatens to take away even those meager wages from any worker who dares to stand up,” the RAFFWU said.

‘For the avoidance of doubt, employees will not be paid for strikes and employees at Coles who impose a ban on Friday 6 October will not be paid by Coles.

‘Refusing to pay workers while banning limited work is a choice made by Coles in its ruthless exploitation of workers.

‘Woolworths has not made the same choice and is not currently refusing to pay employees who carry out prohibition orders.’

How did Coles and Woolworths react?

Coles told Daily Mail Australia the supermarket “remains committed to negotiating a fair and balanced agreement for all.”

“Coles continues to offer better terms under our current enterprise agreement.

‘We passed on the Fair Work Commission’s annual pay increase to our supermarket team members in July.

“We dispute the misinformation spread by the bargaining representative, who represents less than 0.4 percent of team members, and remain committed to negotiating a fair and balanced agreement for all.”

Woolworths said only 300 of its 132,000 employees were expected to take part in the strike action.

A spokesperson for the supermarket said the first negotiations with the RAFFWU had already taken place.

“We have a long history of good-faith negotiations with our team and will continue to do so,” they said.

“However, we recognize and respect the right of team members to take protected industrial action.

“Only persons who have appointed RAFFWU as their negotiating representative can participate.

“As a result, we do not expect customers or our stores to be materially impacted. ‘

The spokesperson said Woolworths had also “passed on” a 5.75 percent pay increase.