A Horsham supermarket is seeking more workers who have lost their jobs because of COVID-19, echoing a national recruitment drive to meet unprecedented demand.

Woolworths announced on Friday last week it would fill up to 20,000 new roles Australia-wide in its supermarkets, e-commerce, supply chain and drinks businesses during the next month.

Woolworths Horsham store manager Danny Hamerston said he was looking to employ 10 additional workers after already recruiting 12 who had lost their jobs due to businesses shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve been trying to employ people who have lost jobs directly – first and foremost – I’m trying to support the community that way,” he said.

“We are employing people who will hopefully go back to their jobs when this is over.

“The community will need these people back in their roles for the businesses to survive – but some might be long-term job prospects too.”

Woolworths also announced on Sunday its dedicated community hour between 7am and 8am, similar to Coles supermarket, would extend to emergency services and healthcare workers on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Tuesdays and Thursdays will be for emergency workers and healthcare workers – for example police, firefighters, ambulance, SES and doctors,” Mr Hamerston said.  

“Saturday and Sunday will be back to normal trading hours, which has changed. 

“We currently trade between 7am and 8pm on weekdays and 7am and 8pm for everybody on the weekend.  

“The most vulnerable will get access to the store first. 

“We’re actually seeing a bit of a downturn in panic buying – we have more stock on shelves now.”

Mr Hamerston said his employees were working hard to help prevent the spread of the virus and keep shelves stocked.

“The workforce is going above and beyond what would be considered normal,” he said. 

“We’ve got tape on the floor and registers, just to make sure people are standing a distance apart.

“We’ve transitioned to customers packing their own bags, there’s constant cleaning of baskets, trolley handles and registers – anywhere that someone could potentially touch.”

Coles is also hiring staff to cope with demand.
Coles has already employed 1700 Victorians in the past two weeks and is seeking a further 5000 across the country to meet current demand.
Chief executive Steven Cain said Coles would continue recruiting, while working with other major employers and unions to find job opportunities for businesses forced to reduce team numbers.
“We have been overwhelmed with the number of applications received from across different industries,” he said.
“We have seen a lot of demand for roles, and where we have positions available, we are making sure that we can get people into them as quickly as possible.” 

– Dylan De Jong

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