Toll takes Coles union back to Fair Work

A bitter industrial dispute at a Coles warehouse in Melbourne will go back before Fair Work Australia on Monday.

As a blockade at the Somerton site continued, a meeting of workers on Friday voted down what the National Union of Workers (NUW) described as a set of compromises from Toll Group.

Toll, which manages the site on behalf of Coles, and the union are continuing negotiations but remain at odds over issues including a staff vote on a pay offer.

NUW state secretary Tim Kennedy was optimistic a solution could be found to the stalemate which led to the stop-work action at the supermarket distribution site.

“Each day we’ve made a little bit of progress,” Mr Kennedy told reporters at the Somerton warehouse.

“With a little bit of commonsense, a little bit more goodwill, we can fix this.”

Toll spokesman Christopher Whitefield said he couldn’t understand what workers had rejected on Friday as negotiations were continuing and nothing had been formalised for consideration.

“We agreed with the union this morning that negotiations would continue over the weekend,” Mr Whitefield said in a statement.

He said the union had taken a vote with only a minority of the workforce present.

“We will be in Fair Work Australia on Monday to try to have an offer put to the entire workforce in a secret ballot organised by the Australian Electoral Commission.”

Toll is appealing a decision by the industrial umpire last week to delay a scheduled all-staff vote on the wage offer.

The union members have vowed to strike until they are granted the same shift penalty and RDO entitlements they say workers at other Coles warehouses receive.

Mr Kennedy said on Friday some gains had been made on leave loadings, but Toll was yet to meet claims for shift penalties and allowing people to accrue time for an RDO.

“The problem with their current offer is it does not meet the fundamental claims,” Mr Kennedy said.

The union had presented Toll with an alternative offer that met the commercial framework the company had outlined, he said.

NUW members have been stopping trucks from entering or leaving the warehouse since July 10 as part of the pay dispute.

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