Woolworths Limited is an Australia-based company. The segments of the Company are supermarket group, general merchandise group, consumer electronics group, hotels group and wholesale group. The supermarket group encompasses supermarkets, retail liquor outlets and petrol outlets. The general merchandise group encompasses BIG W discount department stores. The consumer electronics group encompasses Dick Smith Electronics, Tandy and Dick Smith Electronics Powerhouse stores. The hotels group encompasses on premise liquor sales, food, accommodation, gaming and venue hire. The wholesale group is comprised of the statewide independent wholesalers (SIW). The geographical segments of the Company are Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and India. During the fiscal year ended June 29, 2008 (fiscal 2008) the Company operated 3,030 stores in Australia and New Zealand. [1]

Criticism

Workers Rights

• UNI protests to Woolworths South Africa“Woolworths is also urged to stop victimising workers and to quickly conclude negotiations with the union. The statement says, “the UNI-Africa Executive Committee stands in full support of workers in Woolworths South Africa and demand that the company respects workers’ rights to organise and join a union of their choice. We demand that Woolworths recognises SACCAWU by restoring the recognition agreement signed with the union in 1983. We cannot accept the continued exploitation of workers at Woolworths, the majority of whom have been converted to agency, temporary and atypical forms of employment with no rights to belong to the union. Such foreign “Walmartisation” philiosophies are unacceptable.”
• Woolworths workers to continue strike“”Workers unanimously resolved to continue with the strike until a satisfactory response from the company,” the SA Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union said in a statement…Woolworths was “trying to assert a union-free workplace”. This was something that neither it nor or any trade union in the country would ever tolerate.”

Business Ethics

• Woolworths meat scandal revealed“WOOLWORTHS, Australia’s largest retailer, quietly sacked two senior managers over their roles in the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of meat from its Safeway stores in Victoria. A former manager at a Woolworths-owned meat processing plant, Kenneth Gibbins, was dismissed when his secret financial interest in a company implicated in the scam was exposed. And senior Victorian livestock buyer William Fairfull was sacked over his failure to account properly for and report the disappearance of thousands of kilograms of meat trims.”

Environmental Concerns

• Woolworths busted over ‘environmental’ toilet paper“Woolworths, Australia’s biggest supermarket chain, has been caught telling shoppers that two of its home brand products are environmentally sustainable, when the company has never independently checked the validity of those claims.”
• Woolworths Dodges Bullet over Green Labeling Scandal“The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has halted its investigation into Woolworths’ green label for its store brand of tissue products, saying the matter is too complex to determine exactly who is at fault, The Age reports. Australia’s largest supermarket chain got a drubbing last August when it failed to double-check the claims of its supplier, an Indonesian firm that has been widely criticized for its unsustainable forestry practices.The complexity of working with foreign suppliers and certifications made it difficult to fault Woolworths, according to ACCC. “Woolworths relied on information supplied to them, including [a] forestry stewardship council certificate, which has since been withdrawn,” says an ACCC spokesperson. “[Woolworths was] dealing with foreign companies which were hard to track down.” “

Praise

• High Street shuns Burma“In a welcome move, several retailers, including Adidas, Clarkes, Levi Strauss, Littlewoods, Woolworths and Zara specifically cited human rights concerns as the reason for boycotting Burma.”