MYER will be urged to give priority to voluntary redundancies before forcing Albury staff to cut part-time hours.
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The company has given notice of its intention to Albury staff in a program being introduced at 42 stores.
Myer wants more staff on the shop floor during busy times, which would mean fewer staff when it is quiet.
Several Albury staff are understood to be quite upset by the looming cut in their hours – by as much as 20 per cent - but did not want to speak publicly about the situation.
The Albury store’s staff levels vary from around the 80 mark to about 100 in the busy Christmas period.
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association fears that hundreds of Myer’s 12,000 workers across Australia could go under the voluntary redundancy program also on offer.
But a Myer spokesman said no one had to put their hand up to go if they wanted to stay.
The Albury store, he said, did not have any number attached to possible redundancies.
“Those 42 stores have been selected because of their mix of full-time, permanent, part-time and casual staff,” he said.
“Myer in the past has, in some of our stores, probably just gone a little too high on that ratio.”
But the union’s NSW state secretary said it was urgently seeking talks with Myer to push it to give priority to voluntary redundancies over cutting part-time hours.
“You might then only need a smaller cut in hours affecting a smaller number of staff,” Bernie Smith said.
“There are a number of people now who are part-time who are right down to the bone in terms of meeting their rent, their daily living expenses.”
Mr Smith said if there were cuts to hours, this should apply to part-time positions instead of casual hours.
“Work is a big part of their life,” he said.
“If anyone is to have their hours cut that’s a very big impact on them, on their families and also on their households.
“The money that they lose is money they then don’t spend in shops around Albury.”