The Woolworths Thread (12 Viewers)

[twelvemonths]

MMacka, did the poster say what the pay rise would be?

 

[twelvemonths]

re junior wages, 50% is the rate at 16 years of age in NSW/ACT. It's 40% below that.

 

[iMatthew]

Paid? Well, that's OK then.

Hopefully the shocking under 17 rate will lift a bit for WA. $6.99 for part-timers is awful!

Are you serious? I'm 15 and would get 8.35 p/h hour on part time in Victoria.

O.O!

 

[twelvemonths]

mathew I would be careful about using the Woolworths logo as your avatar... may be misconstrued as representing the company as people are hyper-sensitive nowadays... just my $0.02.

Maybe with the national agreement you Victorians might get a pay decrease

 

[MMacka]

mathew I would be careful about using the Woolworths logo as your avatar... may be misconstrued as representing the company as people are hyper-sensitive nowadays... just my $0.02.

Maybe with the national agreement you Victorians might get a pay decrease

Talking about misconduct, I found out today from my dept manager we are not suppose to reveal upcoming specials. Also found out that if you go into coles in your woolies uniform they ask you what your doing, happened to one of my bosses. Then got into an interesting discussion about insider information being passed around with competitors, like we are competitive with matching coles specials. For example coles had iced donuts on special for $1.47, so we matched their price. Woolworths/Coles must have people in competition that they pay to reveal trade secrets between the two company's. Like with those iced donuts we are aware of the special coming up before coles releases the information to public knowledge.

With the victorians pay, it won't get a decrease because the new agreement couldn't pass the no disadvantage test. So Victoria will probably get a small pay increase but for us employees in other states with low wages we will feel a significant increase. Also if your a junior rates employee you might get an even more significant increase since %age increase is different everywhere.

I can't remember what the poster said the rise would be, but it suggested it would be a very small one. Just a temporary measure while negotiations are still under way. When the agreement is all finished and in effect then backpay of the difference of pay would happen. So technically we are receiving a full pay rise on the 04/01/09 but the full amount won't be paid to us until the agreement goes through. Its probably just a technique so when the agreement comes to vote that everyone will be thinking of the backpay they have accumulated and if they vote yes they will get the backpay. Probably to stop any industrial action happening when Victorians get jealous of their crap 30cent pay rise and other states get incredible ones.

 

[twelvemonths]

Thanks MMacka.

Re the last WA agreement, how long did that take to get passed and implemented from the date of announcement to implementation? I really really really want a pay rise!

 

[Craven]

that sounds a bit dodgy, when we did ours, the in store union rep individually gave the union members a ballot paper, then collected it when we were done, so no double voting.

for our last QLD agreement there was a locked box in the staffroom with some ballot papers to the side of it for a week or so..

 

[T 360]

Hi Guys,

On Monday Night,I will be training one of my colleagues in Self Serve. Here is what I am planning on covering with her:

• Opening/Closing Machines
• Printing Cashier Barcodes
• Changing Receipt Rolls
• Green Lights
• Own Bag Stuff
• Explain the Customer Interface
• How to Reboot the machines
• What the Lights Mean
• How the POS Svr Menu Works
• What the Errors Mean
• SCO Close

Anything I`ve missed?

 

[lordtopcat]

Talking about misconduct, I found out today from my dept manager we are not suppose to reveal upcoming specials. Also found out that if you go into coles in your woolies uniform they ask you what your doing, happened to one of my bosses. Then got into an interesting discussion about insider information being passed around with competitors, like we are competitive with matching coles specials. For example coles had iced donuts on special for $1.47, so we matched their price. Woolworths/Coles must have people in competition that they pay to reveal trade secrets between the two company's. Like with those iced donuts we are aware of the special coming up before coles releases the information to public knowledge.

Yeah my store is pretty strong on this. Dept managers have access to next week's mailer from Tuesday/Wednesday, which are in the SM's office. Although not that we need a mailer we can just check our specials in HOST, and plus you should already know what is on special because of planning.

We always match prices with the Supermarket across town. On a Monday it is actually part of my job to head over there and check out their produce pricing, and any of our KVI lines (Bananas, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Brassica's etc) we usually beat by 3-9 cents. Same with other departments. This week they had a special on 1.5 coke, 3 for $4 and we lowered ours to $1.33 each

 

[bdude]

Paid? Well, that's OK then.

Hopefully the shocking under 17 rate will lift a bit for WA. $6.99 for part-timers is awful!

That's horrid, even for a 17 yo casual with the 20% extra loading.

 

[mak5]

Not an expert on this issue but...
It will probably be next year sometime. I saw a notice on the wall saying we will receive an interim pay rise on the 04/01/2010 from some head of supermarket person working at head office. When the final pay rise is negotiated we will receive backpay from this date. Then we have to all vote on the agreement, votes counted and then pass the no disadvantage test. Since we are going to given a national payrise some states will receive a bigger rise than others to bring everyone in line. I am also hoping in the new agreement that junior rates only go up to 20 instead of 21. Since woolworths petrol were able to lower their junior rate age to 20 I believe in their new agreement that just passed.

With voting is there suppose to be a proper way of voting for the agreement? In WA when our last agreement went through over a year ago in our store all we had was this room where we went in in our own leisure time and had to write yes or no on a scrap bit of paper. There was nothing stopping anyone just getting more votes than others. Would this be sort of illegal for the company to not have a good voting system? If so could we dispute the new agreement if the voting isn't fair? If anyone is an expert in this area let me know.

At mgrs meeting the other day we were told about the new agreement is still being worked out, expected to have a proposed agreement around March, I think they said, then the vote and than if it is successful it should come into line after July. We are already scheduled to receive a payrise in January as part of our current agreement. With the new one we will receive backpay after July, depending on how long it takes to go through.
As for voting, Union reps should seek out staff individually, so there can be no chance of "double dipping" in the voting process.

 

[iMatthew]

Hi Guys,

On Monday Night,I will be training one of my colleagues in Self Serve. Here is what I am planning on covering with her:

• Opening/Closing Machines
• Printing Cashier Barcodes
• Changing Receipt Rolls
• Green Lights
• Own Bag Stuff
• Explain the Customer Interface
• How to Reboot the machines
• What the Lights Mean
• How the POS Svr Menu Works
• What the Errors Mean
• SCO Close

Anything I`ve missed?

Lucky she is getting any training at all, haha.
I think you've basically covered it. One annoying thing I had to learn by myself is changing receipt rolls. Get her to do this over the duration of the night SEVERAL times, not just once. I GUARANTEE she will NOT remember how to do it if you just do it once.

Also, not sure about other stores, but SCO machines with the 2 bagging areas have different locks/compartment doors/etc etc etc, make sure she is aware of each machines struggle with locks and such.
Some of our machines are a bitch to close and lock, nobody told me this and I thought I was doing something wrong, I also had to figure the way to lock them. So just make sure she is aware of the machines way of acting.


Make sure you explain what happens if you get "amount difference than dispensed", "ATM out of 20c coins" etc etc.


BTW, do you get random 20c coin errors telling you the machine has run out? Might be an in-house cash office error I don't know.


Anyway,
Cheers

 

[iMatthew]

Oh and if Woolworths contacts me asking me to remove the logo from my avatar, i will without problems.

Can staff get next weeks specials before released or only managers/DM's/etc?

 

[rose2]

Lucky she is getting any training at all, haha.
I think you've basically covered it. One annoying thing I had to learn by myself is changing receipt rolls. Get her to do this over the duration of the night SEVERAL times, not just once. I GUARANTEE she will NOT remember how to do it if you just do it once.

Also, not sure about other stores, but SCO machines with the 2 bagging areas have different locks/compartment doors/etc etc etc, make sure she is aware of each machines struggle with locks and such.
Some of our machines are a bitch to close and lock, nobody told me this and I thought I was doing something wrong, I also had to figure the way to lock them. So just make sure she is aware of the machines way of acting.


Make sure you explain what happens if you get "amount difference than dispensed", "ATM out of 20c coins" etc etc.


BTW, do you get random 20c coin errors telling you the machine has run out? Might be an in-house cash office error I don't know.


Anyway,
Cheers

yes i didn't get any training at all.I learned all by myself.
It is pretty much everything.
And yes the screen always shows the '20 c empty' message...but i usually ignore that until it says 'amount different than expected' .
And re changing receipts rolls i didn't understand at the first time.But then i tried a few times and now i am a champ.:..more to come..

 

[lordtopcat]

Can staff get next weeks specials before released or only managers/DM's/etc?

Well I guess it differentiates by store. Like I said ours is really strict about it, whereas others may not. Like for example we have a Grocery assistant who assists the manager in promo planning, so they will know what the specials are.


It is quite handy knowing what's on special next week so as I don't pay $22 for a 30 pack of coke on Sunday and then it's down to $17.99 on Monday .

 

[iMatthew]

Well I guess it differentiates by store. Like I said ours is really strict about it, whereas others may not. Like for example we have a Grocery assistant who assists the manager in promo planning, so they will know what the specials are.


It is quite handy knowing what's on special next week so as I don't pay $22 for a 30 pack of coke on Sunday and then it's down to $17.99 on Monday .

Indeed, I'll ask around about that.
Also, anybody use Homeshop? I made my first order to be delivered tomorrow - Mobile EFT is very handy, I thought I had to go and pull cash out manually (bah) hehe.

$100 of crap for first time kicks hehe lol.

 

[Craven]

It is quite handy knowing what's on special next week so as I don't pay $22 for a 30 pack of coke on Sunday and then it's down to $17.99 on Monday .

well you'd think working at Woolies for sometime you'd know that specials are cyclic and if it's not on special this week it will probably be on special next week (for something like Coke anyway... it's pretty much ALWAYS on special, just a different pack size each week).

 

[SS-champion]

Make sure you explain what happens if you get "amount difference than dispensed", "ATM out of 20c coins" etc etc.


BTW, do you get random 20c coin errors telling you the machine has run out? Might be an in-house cash office error I don't know.


Anyway,
Cheers

What do you guys do when it says "amount dispensed different than expected"?

I just open up the SCO and get the money out of the coin hoppers, is this correct?

With the old self-serve if would try to dispense the money again which was much better.

 

[iMatthew]

What do you guys do when it says "amount dispensed different than expected"?

I just open up the SCO and get the money out of the coin hoppers, is this correct?

With the old self-serve if would try to dispense the money again which was much better.

You should definitely not be opening the ATM area's (acceptor/dispenser) whilst there are any customers in the store.
Go to the smokeshop/nearby register, get the money out of there. Write it on a bit of sticky note (how much you took out).

Make sure you note exactly what register you took it out of, and in which self serve. Example:

SCO 80 -> Register 18 = $1.10
SCO 82 -> Register 18 = $3.45
SCO 80 -> Register 18 = $0.05

This one SCO kept giving incorrect/no change to the customers, happened about 5 times that night. The SVR said not to worry about writing it down since it was not over $5, but i still probably would just incase (never know how your store might react to it, so at least you wrote it down to back yourself up).
Btw the silver key should not even be taken out on the floor whilst people are in the store (apparently).


Cheers

 

[twelvemonths]

lol tell somebody before you take the money out of course, don't just take it from smokeshop