Supermarket giant Woolworths has confirmed that it has plans to move around 130 customer support jobs out of New Zealand and across the Tasman to Australia.
It would come alongside the closure of Woolworths’ customer care centre, a proposal that is set to save the business $4.1 million by the 2029 financial year.
But the move has been heavily criticised by the Workers First Union, which slammed the plans as “corporate greed”.
“This is yet another example of New Zealanders losing out to Australia because companies like Woolworths see them as expendable,” said Rudd Hughes, Workers First deputy secretary.
“They’re happy to earn big profits in our country and make Kiwis reliant on their supermarkets, but they are planning to throw away more than a hundred of our jobs to save a very small amount of money over the next three years.”
Woolworths New Zealand maintained that the plans remain in the consultation phase. The offshoring of jobs was described as “integration” of its customer care operations.
“The proposal is designed to explore the use of Woolworths Group’s scale, systems and expertise to provide customer service for Kiwi customers while supporting a simpler, more sustainable New Zealand business,” a spokesperson for the supermarket added.
Woolworths said the impact that the plans could have on individual team members is not one it takes lightly; it promised to support anyone affected.
“We are committed to transparency with our team and will provide support with care and respect as we work through consultation,” the spokesperson said. “We are also working one-on-one with each individual team member to get their feedback and are actively working on redeployment opportunities across the business.”
Hughes, however, accused Woolworths of only caring about its bottom line.
“There should be a reasonable expectation that a large company like Woolworths should reinvest into the society where its customer base is generating those profits,” he said.
