• Coles and the Transport Workers’ Union have signed a new charter on safety standards for road transport workers.
• The charter ensures road transport workers are appropriately paid and have safe working conditions.
• It also ensures gig economy workers in Coles’ supply chain get their relevant work entitlements.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Coles and the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) have signed a charter to strengthen the safety standards of road transport staff and delivery workers across Coles’ supply chain.

Both Coles and the TWU have been working to get the charter underway since 2018, with the newly signed charter about promoting safe and fair standards for road transport employees.

The charter includes regular consultations and safety meetings between Coles and TWU, an investigation of industrial and safety systems of transport operators in Coles’ supply chain and makes sure transport workers are “paid adequately to support fair pay and safe conditions”.

There will be more driver education and the introduction of mental health and safety initiatives. Plus, the charter will ensure gig economy workers in the supply chain have safe working conditions and get all their relevant entitlements.

“We have a common goal of improving safety through the transport supply chain, and by taking a collaborative approach we will be even more effective in achieving safer outcomes that benefit everyone,” Coles Chief Operations Officer Matt Swindells said in a statement.

The TWU sees the charter as a step toward lifting road safety standards in Australia.

“For truck drivers, logistics workers and food delivery riders it means the bar has been set very high in terms of listening to their concerns and investigating issues,” TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said in a statement. “For road users it means a major retailer is putting in place mechanisms to make our roads safer.

“Road transport is a deadly industry and it requires responsible corporate citizens standing up and acting in the interests of the community as Coles is doing.”

Despite the road transport industry making up just 2% of the Australian workforce, it accounts for 17% of work related deaths, according to Safe Work Australia. The industry also accounts for 4% of workers’ compensation claims – 5,100 claims each year – related to injuries and diseases that need one or more weeks off work.

At the charter signing on Wednesday, Kaine said the core of the agreement is about “taking care of people who are engaged by Coles directly or indirectly.”

“When you’re a truckie out on the road and when you’re a gig worker, battling the streets of our major cities, there has to be real attention to detail and attention to the standards that apply to that work, if we’re going to make sure that those workers are safe,” he said.

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