TWU attempts to enter Woolworths DC. The supermarket giant told it to get stuffed and won
By Brad Gardner | January 31, 2011
A union attempt to enter a Woolworths-owned distribution centre has backfired after Fair Work Australia ruled it had no right to set foot on the premises.
Senior Deputy President Jonathan Hamberger struck down the NSW Transport Workers Union’s (TWU) claim that it was entitled to enter the Queensland Properties Investment site in Minchinbury.
The TWU claimed QPI had a direct link to transport because it unloads and loads trucks for supermarkets, thereby allowing union access to employees. Woolworths told the union it did not have any right and that entry would be invalid and possible unlawful.
“Certainly QPI receives goods and wares via transport operators and then despatches them, mainly via Toll. That by itself could hardly be enough to establish a sufficient connection with the transport industry,” Hamberger says.
The QPI site is responsible for warehousing grocery and fresh produce items for supermarkets, but the responsibility for transporting goods falls on suppliers. Fair Work Australia was told QPI does not employ any truck drivers or use prime movers.
“QPI’s business is quite distinct, not only in a legal but in an operational sense, from that of the various transport operators with whom it comes into contact. The relationship is too distant to bring QPI’s employees within the scope of the TWU’s [membership] eligibility rule,” Hamberger says.