Ikea workers in Australia win fixed shifts with their union SDA

Four thousand IKEA workers in Australia will soon benefit from a new collective agreement that includes groundbreaking fixed shifts, an extra five days of annual leave, and the possibility of a four-day work week, among other entitlements.

UNI Global Union’s Australian, SDA, has renewed its agreement with the world’s largest furniture retailer, which will be applied from the beginning of March (with some conditions which already came into effect on 4 September 2023) and run until the end of May 2027.

Thanks to the fixed shifts, both full-time and part-time permanent workers will be included in the scheduling process and will have the security of knowing that the number of days, hours and start times will not change from week to week.

According to the agreement, workers can also a request to work an average four-day week as part of their fixed shift. Such a request will not be unreasonably refused by IKEA.

The other key improvements to the last collective agreement are:

• Increased annual paid leave from 20 days to 25 days.
• Extra pay for early work during the week and on Sundays.
• Improved paid parental leave; secures superannuation (pension) payments for unpaid parental leave; 15 days paid family and domestic violence leave, ten days paid gender affirmation Leave, one day paid grandparent leave, one day paid indigenous and cultural leave, among other improvements to paid and non-paid leave.
• A guaranteed minimum 15-minutebreak for all workers, including those who work the minimum shift of four

“We congratulate the SDA Union for this pioneering agreement that gives IKEA workers a strong say on their shifts, more paid-time off and a better work-life balance,” said Mathias Bolton, Head of UNI’s Commerce sector. “We believe our new global agreement with IKEA will strengthen unions’ capacity to achieve similar successes across the company’s operations.”

UNI Global Union President and SDA National Secretary-Treasurer, Gerard Dwyer, said:

“This agreement fights back against one-way flexibility at work in Australia, giving workers greater control over their lives, both professional and personal. It also recognizes the contribution that workers make to IKEA’s profitability by providing a well-deserved increase in annual leave. As part of the UNI IKEA Alliance, we look forward to growing stronger together with other unions at the company.”