WITH the Australian retail industry employing over 10 percent of the total working population, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) strongly believe that casual workers and their flexible hours are crucial to the survival of retail.

Russell Zimmerman, Executive Director of the ARA, said restricting casual employment would only bring further challenges to Australian retailers who are already facing a difficult operating environment.

“With the Christmas period coming to an end, and crowds of shoppers entering stores across the country during increased trading hours, the flexibility of casual retail employees is crucial,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“Last week we saw foot-traffic increase by 13 percent year-on-year, and without the flexibility of casual employees, Australian retailers would not have been able to staff their stores adequately during the busiest time of the year.”

The ARA believe retailers see employees as a vital part of their business, and therefore know retailers would be happy to offer a fixed number of hours to part-time employees, however Mr Zimmerman continues to stress the importance of flexibility needed in the sector.

“If the unions want permanent employment, then we would need to see more flexibility around the hours of work, and the notification period of roster changes for part-time employees,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“Under the current General Retail Industry Award (GRIA) retailers are restricted in their ability to offer additional hours to part-time employees, and must provide part-time employees seven days written notice if there will be any changes to the roster.

“With unpredictable trading hours in the industry, retailers need to be able to add hours to staff without paying overtime penalties, especially during busy trading periods like Christmas.”

The ARA understands from various retailers that the majority of casual staff enjoy the flexibility in choosing their own hours, and would like to maintain their casual loading as casual staff are adequately compensated for their type of employment.

“Last minute changes always arise in retail and if retailers need to provide their staff seven days notice for each change to the roster, the sector will begin to suffer,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“With ongoing challenges affecting the retail industry and rising energy costs, small and medium retailers will not have the capability to give the required notice to part-time employees and would then end up staffing their stores themselves.”

The ARA believe the existing GRIA provisions around part-time employees and the inefficiencies around Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA)s emphasise the necessity of casual employees.

“This ploy is just another example of the unions losing the fight before the Fair Work Commission,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“The unions already ran a case to convert casual retail employees to permanent retail employees after six months, and the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission assessed the case and unanimously rejected it.

“The unions need to understand the Fair Work Commission was established as the independent umpire, by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, when she was Minister for Employment, and the unions must accept the decision of the Full Bench,” Mr Zimmerman said.

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is the retail industry’s peak representative body representing Australia’s $310 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. The ARA works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 7,500 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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WITH crowds of consumers flooding in-store and website traffic peaking to its highest this year, Boxing Day proved to be another successful day for retailers across the country as the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) tipped this year’s Boxing Day sales to reach $2.4 billion.

Russell Zimmerman, ARA Executive Director, said bricks-and-mortar retailers were happy with the steady stream of customers entering their stores throughout the day and were thankful to shoppers who waited patiently in queues due to the rise in foot-traffic across physical retailers throughout the nation.

“This year the ARA predicted retailers would trade almost $2.4 billion this Boxing Day, and judging by the increase in foot-traffic and shoppers lining outside bricks-and-mortar stores, I think we may have hit the mark,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“Every year Boxing Day crowds seem to grow, however with the growth of online retail the ARA believe many Australians got their bargains online this year, with consumers choosing to click through websites to take advantage of the best sales of the year.”

This Boxing Day, Myer expected to have 1.6 million customers flood through their doors after launching their biggest Stocktake Sale with up to 70 percent off a wide range of brands and products.

“Aussie consumers enjoyed savings across the board this Boxing Day, with 30-50 percent off selected clothing from Cue, MARCS, David Lawrence, Country Road, Seed and French Connection,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“Myer’s super Stocktake Sale also include up to 70 percent  off cookware by Circulon, up to 50% off small appliances and up to 40% off women’s clothing by Mossman, Tommy Hilfiger and Wayne Cooper.”

As Boxing Day is only the start of the sale period, the ARA and Roy Morgan Research expect shoppers to spend $17.9 billion from December 26, 2017 to January 15, 2018.

“We anticipate consumers to continue taking advantage of the best retail sales of the year for the next two or three weeks, both in-store and online,” Mr Zimmerman said.

The category tipped to enjoy the biggest increase in post-Christmas sales over the next three weeks will be the Other Retailing category as the ARA and Roy Morgan have predicted a 4% boost in post-Christmas sales for this category.

“With online shopping accounting for more than 7% of total retail sales and looking to account for 15% in the next five years we believe physical retailers will not be the only retailers to receive an increase in post-Christmas sales,” Mr Zimmerman said.

ARA Boxing Day 2017 sales predictions , December 26, 2017

Boxing Day 2017 sales

[ARA]

ARA and Roy Morgan Research post-Christmas sales predictions

December 26, 2017 – January 15, 2018

2017/2018 Post-Christmas sales growth by category

[ARA / Roy Morgan]

2017/2018 Post-Christmas sales growth by state

[ARA / Roy Morgan]

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is the retail industry’s peak representative body representing Australia’s $310 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. The ARA works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 7,500 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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