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There is a reshuffling of cards going on in Australian retailing. Franklins, the Hong Kong based supermarket chain is withdrawing from Australia, where it has 25,000 workers. This week, Japanese Daimaru announced that it will close its two department stores in Australia. The country's largest retailer Coles Myer cut office staff with up to 1,000. And Aldi, the German hard discounter, is positioning itself for what can be a tough price competition.

Some of the staff cuts will be done gradually, says Joe de Bruyn, national secretary of Uni Commerce affiliate SDA, and will not result in the termination of employment contracts. Employees will just not be replaced when they leave.

Joe de Bruyn, national secretary of SDA, tells that his organisation has succeeded in fending off major lay-offs.  There is quite a turbulence in Australian retailing and workers are now looking at the UNI Commerce affiliate for support. SDA will host the UNI Commercial Workers' Summit in Sydney next April, when over a hundred trade union leaders will discuss developments in global retail and wholesale trade.

In Coles Myer, it is some 1,000 managerial and administrative staff who risk being made redundant in the restructuring operation initiated by its new chief executive John Fletcher. Around 80 per cent of the redundancies will come from the ranks of middle and upper management. At the same time, the company is adding to the number of shop floor workers.

Further reductions to the company's total workforce of 167,000 people would come through natural attrition, Mr Fletcher says in today's Sydney Morning Herald.

SDA to negotiate conditions with Daimaru

Osaka-based Daimaru has been 10 years in Australia and operates two department stores, in Melbourne and on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Altogether, the stores employ 1,000 workers. SDA is now initiating negotiations regarding redundancy conditions and retrenchment pay. The union says that the Daimaru staff is quite experienced and should stand a good chance of finding new employment.

Daimaru, which has not done really well during its Australian presence, says that the new 10 per cent GST sales tax and a slump in consumption have hastened their departure. The Melbourne store will continue to trade until July 31 2002 and the Gold Coast store until January 31 2002.

"It is our intention that all employees of Daimaru will remain employed by the company until the final day of operations and that during this period Daimaru will be working to ensure the company is able to make a controlled exit from the Australian market aimed at minimising any impact on customers, employees and related parties," the managing director of Daimaru Australia Koichi Murata said yesterday in the Age, a Melbourne newspaper.

SDA succeeded protecting members at Franklins

A big change in the Australian retail scene is that Franklins is withdrawing. The Hong Kong based supermarket chain is gradually selling its stores to other retailers, with employees receiving full continuity in terms of wages and conditions. Some employees in back offices and distribution centres will risk losing their jobs, but SDA has been successful in securing that very few unionised workers are laid off.

Harris Scarfe, Australia's third largest retailer, is in trouble. This has been partly attributed to the high costs of its e-commerce operations. The company is now trading under an administrator, due to accumulated losses. It has closed part of its discount department stores. It seems that most of the jobs are not at risk and that eventually a new owner will purchase the business in order to continue its operations.