Labour Court recommends pay protection and buyout for Supervalu Chill redeployed workers

In 2003, the Labour Court recommended that workers redeployed by Supervalu Chill after unsuccessful interviews for Line Manager posts keep their higher Distribution Team Leader rate until the end of the year. The Court recommended a buyout at twice the annual difference between Team Leader and Team Member rates. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union said members had accepted Team Leader roles expecting long-term promotion and later lost income after redeployment. Supervalu Chill said the redeployment option was intended to avoid redundancies and it had proposed reasonable compensation. The recommendation was signed on 17 November 2003. The Court said indefinite pay protection was not viable given the relatively short period claimants had received the higher rate.