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Heather du Plessis-Allan: Supermarket workers deserve a pay rise

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 27 Mar 2020, 4:27PM

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Supermarket workers deserve a pay rise

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 27 Mar 2020, 4:27PM

How about this for an idea: how about supermarkets say thank you to their workers by paying them during this lockdown? 

These workers don’t get paid huge amounts, but they are now essential, front line workers aren’t they?

While the rest of us are safe in our bubbles, pretty much protected from the chances of catching Covid-19 off strangers.

Supermarket workers don’t have that luxury.

They are dealing with hundreds if not thousands of strangers every day, potentially exposing them to someone who might be crook.

And they realise the risks they’re taking.

I’ve read an account of one supermarket checkout manager whose family is so worried that she’ll bring the virus home, that they’ve asked her to take her uniform and shoes off at the door and immediately have a shower.

And that’s not even the half of why these guys deserve extra money at the moment.

They are being slammed, if you’ve been into the supermarket in the last couple of weeks you’ll have noticed how hard these guys are working at the moment.

And then they’re copping abuse from rude shoppers taking it out them.

There’s an unbelievable video online right now of a woman in Otahuhu screaming at a supermarket security guard and climbing over products to get out there.

We can and should say thank you to these guys, but really, they deserve more.

Supermarkets are creaming it.

They’re selling groceries like it's Christmas Eve. Literally. On Monday supermarkets sold so many groceries in one day, that the only other time they sold more, was Christmas eve 2019.

They’re getting all the business that would normally go to butchers and fruit and vege shops.

And they’re asking their staff to work at the front line .

It wouldn’t hurt as a bit of PR as well, would it?  Especially when these supermarkets are facing accusations of lifting prices.

So how about it supermarket bosses, how about giving these people who we all rely on a bit of a pay bump during this lockdown?

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