FarroFresh seem a good employer

At first they sound not so good:

Luxury supermarket chain Farro Fresh is docking the wages of checkout staff whose tills don’t tally.

The posh food chain said the wage deduction policy cuts down on employee mistakes and deters theft.

But unions insisted the practice is outdated with most of the big supermarket chains, fast food industry and banks steering clear of the controversial practice.

I’m not a huge fan. I recall working at Woolworths when I was 14 and being massively offended when a manager told me the till I had worked on was out, and if it happened again I would have it deducted from my pay.

The problem is I was not the only staffer who worked on that till. So they just assumed the mistake (or theft) was from me. I would have quit rather than accepted a deduction for something I did not do.

Back then the tills didn’t tell you how much change to give, so you had to work it out yourself. I was pretty good at maths and enjoyed doing so, and was confident any mistakes didn’t occur when I was on it.

Draper explained that no deductions were made without the consent and permission of the staff member.

He said: “A checkout operator counts and signs out their float and this needs to balance at the end of the day.

“After each transaction, the till tells the checkout operator exactly how much change is to be handed over. This reduces human mathematical errors, and ensures tills balance.

“Unders and overs’ are tracked for every person on every shift. If the balance at the end of a month is greater than an allowable amount, then a meeting is held with the staff member. If it is less then no action is taken.”

He added: “If the staff member does not agree to a deduction then none is made, and it has to be 100 per cent transparent it is operator error.”

If you’re going to do it, this sounds a fair way to do it.

FarroFresh had grown from having just 12 employees in 2006 to over 350 today. Draper said staff got many perks including instore discounts, birthdays off, staff sandwiches, free coffees and hot chocolates via our baristas.

“For many employees this is at least two a day, at a cost of approximately $4 each.”

And, he said: “For the past two years all the turnover on Labour Day has been given back to the employees. Not the profit but the total turnover.”

That’s very generous. They sound like a good employer.