After criticism, Woolworths stresses Disney costumes for staff 'voluntary'

Woolworths New Zealand is stressing that its request for employees to dress up as "Disney-accurate" characters is voluntary, following backlash from a union.

The supermarket has suggested employees wear the costumes as part of a week-long promotion where employees would hand out thousands of collectible trading cards to customers.

“We encourage team members to join the fun and dress up as their favourite Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars characters!” says a memo to staff.

But First Union criticised the request for being in "poor taste" as it requires employees pay for the costumes themselves.

"It's in really poor taste for Woolworths to ask all staff to dress up in make-believe costumes that they have to pay for themselves when they're in the middle of a very real strike action over low pay and unsafe staffing levels," said Rudd Hughes, FIRST Union National Secretary for Retail and Finance, in a statement.

Michelle McKenzie, a Woolworths duty supervisor based in Christchurch and member of the FIRST Union bargaining team, added that the instruction did not go well with employees.

"Most people can't afford to pay for their own living expenses comfortably on our current wages, so the request for us to design a Disney-accurate costume from our own back pockets was seen as quite ridiculous," she said.

Dressing up is 'voluntary'

Woolworths told Radio New Zealand, however, that it was not mandating employees to dress up as part of the promotion.

"This is a voluntary thing that many of our team have done before for various occasions. Teams who don't want to take part will just wear the uniforms - that we supply at no cost - as usual," a statement from the company said as quoted by RNZ.

"It's disappointing the union has chosen to misrepresent this, especially as we have returned to talks today."

Strike action at Woolworths

A majority of First Union members will not be joining Woolworths' promotions as they find it distasteful, according to Hughes.

"We're hearing from members that the majority will not participate and find it extremely distasteful that they're being asked to make and dress up in Disney costumes after spending the last week being misled and lied to by store managers about the legality of wearing a 'strike sticker' at work," he said.

The promotion comes after nearly 10,000 Woolworths employees voted for strike action that started on Tuesday.

Actions carried out by employees include wearing strike stickers, with members at 10 stores handing out "receipt"-style flyers to staff.

McKenzie said Woolworths' dress-up instruction makes employees feel like the ongoing strike action is "falling on deaf ears."

"We don't want to wish upon a star - we want a living wage, safer staffing levels and penalty rates for nights and weekends," she said.