Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited CEO Don Meij has announced plans to open 30 to 40 new stores in Australia over the next six months. Combined with plans to employ more team members across its 474 existing stores in Australia, the publicly-listed pizza chain expects to create more than 2,500 employment opportunities in the next four months. Mr Meij said the company had kicked off the 2011/12 financial year with solid same store sales growth and its stores are requiring more drivers and pizza makers... ...Read more »

Newly appointed CEO of Australian retail giant Woolworths Limited, Grant O’ Brien, has unveiled a multi-pronged strategy to expand the company’s operations in Australia. In a series of media statements, the company announced plans to create 10,000 new retail jobs before the current financial year ends, as well as a five-year plan to double sales of Woolworths supermarkets’ own brand products. According to the statements, Woolworths plans to open 39 new supermarkets, seven new BIG Ws and 15... ...Read more »

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) today urged the Federal Government’s Future Jobs Forum, at Parliament House, Canberra, to explore new ways of safeguarding jobs in Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing sector. The Future Jobs Forum was a meeting called by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to bring together representatives from business, unions, government and academia to discuss the challenges facing Australian industry over the next decade. Addressing the forum, AFGC Chief Executive... ...Read more »

The Fair Work Ombudsman will write to almost 50,000 retailers across the country as part of a national campaign to encourage greater compliance with workplace laws.Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson is urging employers to positively embrace the campaign as an opportunity to improve their understanding of workplace laws. The retail sector generates more complaints than any other industry – 4200 last year, or almost 20 per cent – and the Agency has prosecuted 39 retail employers in four... ...Read more »

A rise in the number of home cooked meals has helped cushion the impact of the downturn on supermarkets and manufacturers and is leading to a replenishment of staff at a number of prominent manufacturing sites in Victoria. Around 60 positions have been added at the Uncle Tobys factory near Wodonga, 50 at each of the Bega and Mrs Crocket’s factories and a number at Fonterra, the state secretary of the National Union of Workers, Anthony Thow, told The Age. Mr Thow believes the jobs rebound in... ...Read more »

Lower interest rates and the first economic stimulus package have helped shore up jobs in the retail industry, according to an analysis of new ABS jobs data, the Australian National Retailers Association said today. ANRA, which represents a number of Australia’s largest retail organisations including supermarket chains Coles, Woolworths and Franklins, reported that growth in the number of retail job losses had begun to subside. “The ABS Labour Force figures for the February quarter show... ...Read more »

The retail sector may have shed up to 8,000 full-time jobs in February, the Australian National Retailers Association said today, while the fast-food sector will soon face a significant rise in labour costs. The latest unemployment figures released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show unemployment has risen to 5.2% with 53,800 full-time jobs lost. The retail sector employs 15% of the Australian workforce. “Retail jobs are the most vulnerable when there is a loss of confidence in the... ...Read more »

The number of Australian and New Zealand organisations that are planning to freeze staff levels or cut back has trebled since March, according to management consulting firm Hay Group’s latest Global Employee Pay and Staffing Survey. Seventeen per cent of the Australian and New Zealand firms polled said they would cut jobs, while 27 per cent plan to keep employee levels steady. Fifty-three per cent of may change previously-established budgets to increase base salaries in 2009, while 24 per... ...Read more »

The simplified draft award handed down by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) today will increase cost pressure on employers, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA). The ACCI, the peak council of Australian businesses, contends that the proposed new rules are not consistent with the Government’s direction that the creation of modern awards “is not intended to… increase costs for... ...Read more »

Older employees are likely to be more loyal and stay in the retail sector long term, new research by UK-based Skillsmart Retail has suggested. A survey by the Sector Skills Council into the attitude of retail workers found that, although one third of the retail workforce is under 25, employees in their 30s, 40s and 50s saw their jobs as much more permanent than other workers. The results have sparked Skillsmart Retail to take on a larger piece of research investigating the importance of older... ...Read more »