Officeworks team members vote ‘yes’ to a new agreement and had their say about their pay, with overwhelming support for the new Store Operations Agreement which introduces increased base pay, new leave entitlements, higher penalty rates and the option for team members to choose their own super fund.
Voting closed at midnight 30 June, with more than 80 percent of team members participating in the vote and 97 percent voting in favour of the new agreement, Officeworks reported earlier this month.
The new agreement sees over-award terms and conditions retained, with improved conditions for both part-time and casual team members when it comes to securing work.
As part of the four-year agreement, eligible team members will receive a two percent wage increase for the first two years and a three percent wage increase for the last two years; continue to be paid above award base rates; be paid higher penalty rates on weekends and evenings; be given the choice of pension fund so they can manage their pension the way they want to and be provided with two days paid domestic and family violence leave, should they ever need it.
Officeworks Managing Director, Sarah Hunter, said: “Providing certainty about pay and conditions for our team members so that they can plan their work and life more effectively is important to us and has been an absolute priority for me and my team.
“I’m really excited that our team has overwhelmingly voted in favour of this agreement. It’s such an exciting time at Officeworks and creating more stability for our team members will help us make bigger things happen together moving forward.
“And because we didn’t want our team to wait for the agreement to go through the formal approval process, which can sometimes take months, all team members covered by the agreement will receive a two percent increase on their base pay rate from today,” she said.
Following the successful vote, the agreement will now be lodged with the Fair Work Commission for approval.
The news follows the introduction of a new paid parental leave policy in March called ‘Growing Families’, aimed at better supporting its team members across the business as they grow their family. Benefits of the new policy include twelve weeks of paid leave, as well as pension contributions and long service leave accrual for the full 52 weeks for the primary carer. For a secondary carer, it includes two weeks of paid leave, including pension, Officeworks added.
