New Technology and Industrial Relations in the Retail Grocery Industry

Abstract

This paper examines implications for employment and industrial relations in the Australian retail grocery industry of new technology in the form of product numbers and optical scanning. Since scanning has not yet been fully implemented within the Australian retail grocery industry the paper focuses on overseas experience in this field. It is emphasised that scanning is only one of a wide range of important technological changes which have been introduced into the retail grocery industry in recent years. Many other innovations, such as "point of sale" equipment and automated warehouses, have overlapped and been interrelated with the development of scanning. It is therefore difficult to isolate the effects of scanning from other variables. Nevertheless, the paper analyses the experience of employers and unions involved with the introduction of scanning, especially in the US retail grocery industry and makes some recommendations concerning its introduction in Australia.