The Chemist Warehouse case will be far reaching, says legal expert
The recent Fair Work Commission decision involving Chemist Warehouse has sent a clear signal to franchises and retailers across Australia: multi-employer bargaining is here, and it is expanding.
Earlier this year, the Fair Work Commission backed an application by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) in South Australia to compel multi-employer bargaining across 18 McDonald’s restaurants.
For many in the sector, that decision rang alarm bells. The Chemist Warehouse outcome now confirms those fears were well founded, as it proved fast food was not an isolated target and that retail more broadly is also exposed.
According to Melini Pillay, principal at McCabes, this is a significant and concerning shift for employers who had understood multi-employer bargaining to be aimed at a very different cohort of workers.
Multi-employer bargaining was promoted as a mechanism to help workers in sectors where pay is low and bargaining power is weak – classic examples being disability support and care services, where coordinated standards for pay and conditions were seen to lift baseline protections.
It was never meant to be a blunt instrument wielded across already heavily regulated sectors like retail, Pillay said.
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