Supermarket giant Coles will scrap a contentious staff wages and conditions agreement rather than make "impractical" changes suggested by the workplace regulator.
The Fair Work Commission had recommended Coles alter its current store team agreement to lift payments for staff who work frequent weekend or night shifts, or limit the number of those shifts some workers are given, to ensure they are not paid less than the award.
Those recommendations were made after a successful industrial challenge by a part-time Coles worker in Brisbane.
But Coles says workers' conditions will now be covered by previous agreements.
"These suggested changes are impractical for our team members, would significantly reduce the level of service we can provide our customers, and would not represent the agreement our team members voted overwhelmingly to endorse," Coles said in a statement.
A lack of availability of staff could prevent the retailer from providing its expected customer service levels and prevent shelves from being stocked overnight, Coles said.
It added that it felt it was unfair for staff members to be required to work at times that may be inconvenient to them.
Coles said it will now utilise previous agreements and provide a guarantee to all employees that they will not experience a reduction in their base rate of pay and penalty rates.
The company also said it will honour the wage increase for July that workers had voted for in the 2014-2017 agreement.
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