Small retailers win staff increases

Amid renewed debate about Western Australia’s retail trading hours, small retailers have quietly scored a major victory by gaining a 30 per cent increase on the number of staff allowed to work on their shop floors.

The restriction on staff numbers comes with a major benefit for the independent retailers – they are able to open late nights and on Sundays.

WA’s current retail laws force independent retailers to a maximum of 10 staff members on the shop floor at any one time, but that is all about to change after the WA Independent Grocers Association successfully lobbied the government to increase staff numbers.

Under the Retail Shops and Fair Trading Legislation Amendment Bill 2005, which was passed late last year, the maximum number of staff allowed on the shop floor was increased from 10 to 13 and excludes apprentices.

The amendment needs to be proclaimed, or rubber stamped, before it becomes a reality.

It is somewhat of a compromise for the WAIGA, which had been pushing for staff numbers to double to 20.

Retail Traders’ Association WA director Brian Reynolds said the amendment was another example of the inadequacies of WA's retail trading laws.

“All the legislation does is impede growth,” Mr Reynolds said. “Why would they (independents) want to grow to 20? Because they are a select group of retailers and the level of demand is such that they can not maintain their level of service under the restrictions.”

WAIGA president John Cummings said independent retailers had experienced trading difficulty during “normal” trading hours.

He said retailers would have been happy to keep the current restrictions for 10 staff in place during extended trading hours while gaining the ability to roster on more staff during normal retail trading hours.

Mr Cummings added that the WAIGA would fight a fresh push to deregulate WA’s shopping hours.

“The majority of locally owned businesses do not want extended shopping hours,” he said. “We are not going to give in on this.”

Mr Reynolds said his association welcomed the renewed attention on extending WA’s shopping hours.

“There should not be any restrictions on the number of people employed because there should not be controls on trading. Every business should be able to determine when it opens and how many people it employs,” he said.

Mr Cummings said he was opposed to a trial of extended trading hours because of the additional time and costs involved and, in particular, the need for small businesses to create new staff agreements and rosters for a short-term arrangement.