Bunnings workers numbering 70 from four Auckland stores went on strike outside the company’s head office between 1230 and 1300 yesterday.

This comes after a strike at Bunnings Mount Maunganui and similar strikes in other retail chains like the Warehouse.

Striking workers are calling on the company to return to bargaining and settle a fair collective agreement.

Bunnings workers across the country will be walking off the job for one or two hours at a time over the next fortnight after overwhelmingly rejecting the Australian-owned hardware store’s attempt to lock them into insecure contracts, says FIRST Union retail and finance secretary, Maxine Gay.

“99 per cent of our members have voted to reject the company’s offer. Now workers from stores across the country will strike.” she says.

“Workers are resisting the company’s attempt to impose insecure contracts. Bunnings is proposing a collective agreement that will hand bosses the power to chop and change start and finish times without the worker’s agreement.

“Although workers will have guaranteed hours over a fortnight, Bunnings is also proposing a clause that will allow management to unilaterally change what days of the week workers are rostered on for.”

She explains that workers need certainty so they can plan things like childcare.

“You can’t plan your life when your work situation keeps changing,” she says.

“This sort of insecurity is going to cause tremendous stress. It’s actually how zero hours start; inch by inch the company removes workers’ rights.

“Workers are not going to let themselves be locked in to such a one-sided agreement.”