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The Fair Work Commission has ruled that hundreds of labour hire employees, on-hired to Woolworths, are not entitled to the backpay that their directly-employed colleagues received after voting up a new enterprise agreement with a 'same pay' clause.

The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) had applied to the Commission to deal with a dispute relating to backpay for the Adecco on-hire staff working at some Woolworths' liquor distribution centres, in a bid to have them treated equally with direct employees.

The Commission heard that to secure a 'yes' vote for its new enterprise agreement late last year, Woolworths agreed to backpay employees the EA's first wage increase (6%) from the expiry date of the old EA on 2 August 2023...