Woolworths, one of Australia’s two biggest supermarket chains, has implemented tough new measures to force warehouse workers to speed up. Despite posting record profits in recent years, the company is trying to meet shareholder demand for increased “productivity”.

The new “training and productivity framework” was introduced at Woolworths warehouses earlier this year as a punitive means of extracting ever greater labor value from workers. If fully implemented, the Framework would impact approximately 8,000 permanent Woolworths employees across 15 warehouses, as well as thousands more casuals.

While some aspects of the Framework have been “paused” due to worker opposition, the so-called “engineering standards” it applies remain in place.

Woolworths sets benchmarks for how long it should take to pick items from the warehouse shelves, and then workers must complete their tasks within the set time to achieve a 100% rating. Anything less than 100% is considered a failure and workers are then “counseled and may be disciplined”. For many casual workers in Woolworths warehouses, this could mean redundancy.

At the end of each shift, the workers’ scores are displayed on screens for all to see in an attempt to humiliate them into compliance. This is meant to push workers to the max, increase productivity and allow the company to cut jobs without reducing production.

The Tutor recently published anonymous comments from Woolworths warehouse workers who were subjected to harsh expediting measures.

The newspaper reported that one worker, who was ordered to attend the retraining program despite having worked at the facility for years, “said it was ‘humiliating’ to be followed around the warehouse by a ‘coach.'” just as it causes daily embarrassment. your score efficiency is displayed on the screen so anyone can see when you’re done for the day.”

Another worker, who was employed by a staffing firm at the Woolworths warehouse in Perth about three years ago, said the “engineering standards” were already unreasonable at that stage.

He told him Tutor: “I remember getting a pick time estimate for two pallets that were mostly beer cans and it was like 19 or 21 minutes and I ended up doing it in 45… Of course that gave me low efficiency percentage.

“You have time limits, you rush, you panic. You don’t think. And so… the risk of injury is there.”

Another worker said, “I can’t sleep thinking about what would happen if I lost my job because I didn’t meet the standards a few times and my average wasn’t high enough.”