Pick n Pay's management aim to restructure working conditions at its stores, but the main trade union of its staff, the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union, aims to fight tooth and nail for its hard won labour gains at the retailer.
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Pick n Pay and the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) look set to butt heads after the trade union accused the loss-making retailer of being dishonest, while the retailer claims there are no plans to retrench 22,000 store workers.
Pick n Pay issued Section 189 notices last week, a move it described as the next step in a multi-year financial turnaround that has already seen the closure of many loss-making stores, the repayment of debt, and the freezing of salaries. In February, it warned its headline loss per share for 2026 would worsen by more than 20% over 2025’s headline loss per share of -61.54 cents because trading over the previous 22 weeks had been “below expectation, the result of a highly t.”
SACCAWU national spokesperson Sithembele Tshwete told Business Report on Friday that the Section 189 notices could only mean two things: plans to change the workers’ conditions of employment or plans to retrench workers.
He said that often, as in the case of Pick n Pay, which had indicated it wishes to change conditions of employment, workers were left with the choice of either accepting the change in working conditions or face retrenchment.
A Pick n Pay spokesperson said, however, that no retrenchments were planned, and the Section 189 notices were issued to discuss changes to their working conditions.
“The company seeks to use the Section 189 CCMA referral it has made to coerce SACCAWU into agreeing to it taking away transport provided to workers whose shifts end after normal public transport schedules, withdraw subsidised meals offered to workers, cancel all legacy agreements with SACCAWU, withdraw the Sunday premium for full-time workers, and scrap the 13th cheque paid to workers,” the trade union said in a statement.
The union said that while it was open to engaging with any proposals made by Pick n Pay management, it "is not willing to allow the company to embark on wholesale changes to the terms and conditions of employment it has negotiated over many years.”
Tshwete said the trade union was meeting over two days, over the weekend, ahead of Monday’s meeting, to discuss its options.
The union said in a statement that Pick n Pay had created the impression that it was already in negotiations with the union.
“Pick n Pay decided to bypass the provisions, dictates, and spirit of the law and directly served workers with S189 notices instead of serving the union, which is a collective bargaining agent of workers in Pick n Pay,” it said.
“Such notices were, in fact, served on members and the union after the company had run off to the media to present factually inaccurate information… and in the course of this set the union against its members by claiming the existence of negotiations,” the union said.
The issuing of notices was despite meetings the CEO convened with SACCAWU on 21 and 28 April, 2026.
Pick n Pay issued the Section 189 notices last Monday, and CEO Sean Summers said at the time, Pick n Pay’s employment conditions were “significantly more generous” than those of its competitors.
The proposed changes included cuts to Sunday pay and changes to work rosters so that full-time workers can also work on weekends.
“Pick n Pay’s intention to downgrade full-time workers’ hard-won negotiated conditions of employment and benefits is a direct response to its inability to recapture its market share and to ameliorate its tanking share price,” the union said.
“SACCAWU, in support of its members, refuses to be bulldozed into giving up the workers’ rights and is prepared to fight tooth and nail in defence of these rights.”
It said what the Pick n Pay CEO omitted to inform the public was that the company initiated and concluded a flexibility and multi-skilling agreement with the union to address staffing and flexible rostering of the workforce.
The intention of the agreement was to ensure optimal staffing, with an agreed staffing ratio of 40% full-time workers to 60% variable time employees (VTEs). Also, built into the agreement was for stores to implement flexible staff scheduling between their primary jobs and secondary jobs.
“The company’s claim that stores are overstaffed on weekends and that it relies on part-time staff (VTEs) to work evenings and weekends is misleading, as all employees work a mandatory Saturday shift, while some already work on Sundays. The initial agreement between Pick n Pay and SACCAWU was to employ VTEs to fill in on shifts that fall outside the conditions of employment of full-time employees.”
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