Readers happy to work for free

IT APPEARS Toowoomba residents wouldn’t mind working without pay if their boss requested a few hours free labour.

A Coles manager in Western Australia posted a notice to staff asking them to work on a Sunday stocktake not for extra income, or time in lieu - but for pizza.

Once the Coles senior management team was made aware of the request they issued a statement which said, “it was completely out of step with Coles’ way of working” and that “any team members working at that time would be paid as normal”.

The Chronicle shared the story with its Facebook followers and while there were people who were outraged with the request, a majority of people were in support of the free labour.

Johno Neilsen’s comment got 49 likes agreeing with the concept.

“There is no problem at all (with the notice). It’s not a mandatory roster, he was asking for volunteers to help. You are not obligated to be there. As the note said the manager just simply wants a hand instead of doing all that on their own,” he said.

Queensland Council of Unions Toowoomba president Chris McGaw said he understood if people were happy to stay behind and help out small businesses, but not multi-billion companies.

“Why would you work for free for a multi-national company like Coles?” he said.

“They make billions in profit every year and it is not acceptable. It shouldn’t even be asked.

“Four hours is a fair chunk out of your day as well, it is not like they were asking them to stay back half an hour.

“I understand if people want to stay back and help small businesses and give them a few extra hours in return for some flexibility but it doesn’t make sense with a company like Coles.”

While there were many readers who said they would put their hand up to work for pizza, there were also a few who said they wouldn’t work unless they were paid.

Paul Mahony said: “I’m sure Coles made a big enough profit for the year to pay their staff and I bet the CEOs don’t work for pizza.”