'It was time for a new agreement and time for us to make some great changes'
Ikea Australia has a new enterprise agreement with a raft of new policies for its employees or ‘co-workers’.
“For the first half of this year, we were bargaining for the new agreement, and it was voted for by our co-workers back in July,” Greg Day, co-worker experience manager at Ikea Australia, said.
“It was time for a new agreement and time for us to make some great changes, lots of them that we're really proud of.”
Among the changes are new policies around parental leave, rostering and paid leave. And these are all designed to develop a meaningful career not only in Ikea but in the retail sector as well, Day said.
“We've taken the approach that we want to attract and retain co-workers for longer periods of time,” he told HRD Australia. “We don't want to have people just come and go, we want them to stay with us because we think that's better for our business, it's better for our customers and ultimately, for our co-workers.”
Ikea’s new policies
There are several leave policies that have been introduced under Ikea’s new enterprise agreement (EA) including the option of a fixed roster.
“The change that we're implementing is to provide the opportunity for a co-worker to elect to work their contracted hours as part of a fixed roster, which would be a roster that includes the dates and times of work sent over a four-week period,” Day said.
“They would have the authority around the day that they would work and the time that they would start and finish work. And that would be locked in as part of their employment contract.”
In addition, the EA includes:
- five weeks of paid annual leave (six weeks for overnight workers)
- one day of grandparent leave to spend time with grandchildren
- up to five days of fertility treatment leave
- one day of Indigenous cultural and ceremonial leave
- up to 10 days of gender affirmation leave
- natural disaster leave for up to two days per occasion – totalling six days per year
- observation of alternate days of significance other than public holidays
Also included is the ability of staff under the EA to request a four-day work week.
“This particularly applies to the agreement that covers our store co-workers and our customer service centre co-workers,” Day said.
The organisation has also changed its parental leave policy, Day said.
“There's no length of service required to access the IKEA paid parental leave,” he said. “That's a change for us, which is something we're really proud of. So from day one, co-workers have access to paid parental leave.”
While the Ikea team is mindful that not everyone is going to access the leave, Day said it is still important for those who have the opportunity to use it.
No casual employees
Ikea Australia doesn’t employ casual workers, Day said, something it hasn’t done for nearly a decade.
“[It] is quite a different thing in the retail market because a lot of retailers do rely on casual employment,” he said. “We're working with just full-time and part-time co-workers for around 10 years now. We haven't been hiring any casuals.
“And that works for our business because it means that we ideally are attracting people who are wanting security and a meaningful career in retail. Whether that be for…a couple of years, it could be for a long-term career. And we have many of those people who have started as an hourly paid, co-worker working part-time, move into full-time and leadership roles.”
The decision not to have casual workers was to ensure all employees are able to access the benefits Ikea provides such as paid leave.
“If we worked with casuals, we would have a small group or a group of co-workers who wouldn't be eligible to receive those benefits,” Day said.
A positive reception
Most of the new policies have been rolled out since September, including a pay rise for employees, Day said.
“All of our co-workers received a wage increase on the commencement of this agreement and that was the 5.75% increase in the previous rate,” he said, “And that was to reflect the percentage increase in the retail award that was handed down earlier this year.”
However, Day said the policy around observing an alternate day of significance will be implemented from March 2024.
“It's the opportunity to work… a day that's been declared as a public holiday, that is not a meaningful day for them,” he explained. “And they can choose to be paid their normal rate of pay on that day and instead of getting the public holiday rate, they can get annual leave for the hours they’ve worked. And then that means they can take an alternate day of significance off.
“It was [about] recognising the diverse group of co-workers we have. And certainly we have many co-workers who wouldn't see the days that are considered as public holidays as being meaningful for them. And instead, they have other days that are more significant. So we want them to be able to have access to have those days off.”
The EA was received positively by Ikea’s staff, Day said.
“Our co-workers voted overwhelmingly in favour of this agreement, so it made a really good impact,” he said.
And Day went on to share his advice for HR teams looking to implement their own enterprise agreement.
“Look at the opportunities to provide a place where people can join and stay,” he said. “I think we're all trying to make our businesses attractive places to join and stay.”
