Industrial relations questions at AGMs
May 5, 2025
This list looks at industrial relations questions at 11 public company AGMs since 2022.
Bega Group 2024 AGM
Q3. The Federal Government keeps introducing new laws in the industrial relations space. How are we navigating these changes and what is our overall level of engagement with the union movement. What proportion of our staff are unionised and how many registered enterprise agreements do we have?
Answer: Turns out they have 52 EBAs across 18 manufacturing plants covering 3,800 workers. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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Coles 2023 AGM
Q1. The start-up Retail and Fast Food Workers Union is providing competition to our traditional union, the SDA, are have been in the media recently and have turned up today working with the Victorian Greens. The likes of Domino's and JB Hi Fi have no union agreements and virtually no union membership amongst team members. Why are we so different? Could the CEO summarise the number of union agreements we have with the SDA and provide an estimate on the percentage of our workforce which are members of the SDA or its new competitor, the RFFWU.
Answer: Chair James Graham gave a lengthy and diplomatic response but didn't invite new CEO Leah Weckert to speak. See video of exchange via Twitter plus this extended component of his answer.
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JB Hi Fi 2022 AGM
6. The Federal Government has introduced changes to industrial relations laws into the Federal Parliament this week, which business groups are criticising? Are we worried? What are our current enterprise agreement arrangements and what proportion of our staff are members of a union? How many unions do we deal with in Australia?
Answer: listen to response via this Twitter video.
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Guzman Y Gomez 2024 AGM
Q2. In terms of the Australian operation, how many enterprise agreements with unions does our company have across the business and are we worried about these ongoing proposed changes to industrial relations law by the Federal Government such as the right to disconnect and "same job, same pay" rules. JB Hi Fi and Domino's both said at recent AGMs that they pay award wages, have no enterprise agreements and virtually non-existent union membership amongst its workforce. Is our situation the same?
Answer: The chair handed this one to the CFO. Watch video of exchange via Twitter, including this final flourish where he stressed the corporate stores have no union deals..
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Domino's 2022 AGM
4. In terms of the Australian operation, how many enterprise agreements does Domino's have across the business and are we worried about these proposed changes to federal industrial relations law? JB Hi Fi said at its AGM last week that it only pays award wages, has no enterprise agreements and virtually non-existent union membership amongst its workforce. What is our situation?
Answer: we have no enterprise agreements and operate under one national award which is nice and simply. There are no unions involved.
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KMD Brands 2024 AGM (Rip Curl and Kathmandu)
Q5. How many enterprise agreements with unions does our company have across the business and are we worried about these ongoing proposed changes to industrial relations law by the Australian Govt such as the right to disconnect and "same job, same pay" rules. JB Hi Fi & Domino's both said at recent AGMs that they pay award wages, have no enterprise agreements & virtually non-existent union membership amongst its workforce. Is our situation the same? Also, what is the pay differential between our Australian and NZ store workers?
Answer: After a lecture from chair David Kirk about asking too many detailed operational questions, the CEO briefly explained that they have no union presence at the company. Watch video of exchange via Twitter
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Super Retail Group 2024 AGM (Rebel)
Q2. The CEO mentioned a strong vote in favour of our enterprise agreement, which was negotiated with unions and registered with Fair Work. Retail competitors like Accent Group and JB Hi Fi say they don't have any union presence in their businesses and mainly just pay award wages. What is the history of our retail business being more heavily unionised than other retailers and which parts of our workforce are not covered by union-negotiated agreements?
Answer: Would normally expect the CEO to take an operational question like this but chair Sally Pitkin did most of the talking, partly because she was the only director with a microphone in front of her. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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Bapcor 2024 AGM (Super Cheap Auto)
Q5. In terms of the Australian operation, how many enterprise agreements with unions does Bapcor have across the business. It is never easy to implement restructuring programs in heavily unionised work forces. Please summarise the level of union coverage across out business and whether this includes multiple enterprise agreements with prescribed redundancy arrangements. Which are the key unions we are dealing with as we downsize and rationalise out operations?
Answer: Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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Wesfarmers 2022 AGM (Bunnings, Officeworks, Kmart, Target)
1. How many enterprise agreements do we have across the business and are we worried about these proposed changes to federal industrial relations law. JB Hi Fi said at its AGM today that it only pays award wages, has no enterprise agreements and virtually non-existent union membership amongst its workforce. What is our situation?
Answer: chairman Michael Chaney said the system it too complicated, they have lots of EBAs with different unions and the BOOT test is ridiculous. Unlike JB Hi Fi, he also said they generally pay above award wages.
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GUD 2022 AGM
The Federal Government has just introduced some new industrial relations which peak business bodies are objecting strongly too. What is our situation with industrial relations? Do we have any or many certified enterprise agreements and which unions do we mainly deal with?
Answer: mainly deal with manufacturing unions and most EBA were sorted 12 months ago.
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Cedar Woods 2024 AGM
Q2. Has the appointment of administrators to most divisions of the CFMEU construction division had any impact on us? How do we find the CFMEU to deal with on apartment builds are how much union influence is there over our land business? Was the appointment of administrators the right decision and are we comfortable that our past dealings with the CFMEU have been appropriate?
Answer: The CEO said they don't generally use builders who use unionised labour. Listen to audio of exchange via Twitter.
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