\u201cRight now our primary focus is on supporting those team members and ensuring customers are not impacted while we consider the proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Workers First said the feedback deadline for affected workers is September 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the customer care team are sole parents who work remotely and will not find redeployment or comparable employment in their regions,\u201d Workers First deputy secretary Rudd Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proposal will be crushing to hear about today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes said Workers First had provided feedback on the proposal and would continue to advocate for union members during the consultation period.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is yet another example of New Zealanders losing out to Australia because companies like Woolworths see them as expendable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re happy to earn big profits in our country and make Kiwis reliant on their supermarkets, but they are planning to throw away more than 100 of our jobs to save a very small amount of money over the next three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should be a reasonable expectation that a large company like Woolworths should reinvest into the society where its customer base is generating those profits \u2013 but Woolworths seem to care only about their bottom lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes said the proposed cuts would mean worse service for Woolworths customers in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone calling from Paek\u0101k\u0101riki to inquire about a product return, for example, may find it much more difficult to deal with an Australian who lacks local knowledge and local experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n