Key facts
- Workers First Union claimed AI tracked members' bathroom breaks, leading to staff urinating and defecating in distribution aisles.
- The Warehouse Group denied using AI to monitor bathroom visits, saying its scanning devices track efficiency and are not AI-powered.
- The Warehouse Group said drones for stocktaking and a packing robot caused no job losses or permanent-role redundancies.
- Union organiser Hayley Courtney said workers sought contract assurances against being easily replaced by technology.
- The Warehouse Group said it currently has three additional permanent roles.
More than 300 employees of The Warehouse, New Zealand's largest retailer, protested in Auckland and Christchurch on November 12 against automation and workplace monitoring, The New Zealand Herald reported. Workers First Union claimed artificial intelligence was tracking members' bathroom breaks, leading to instances of staff urinating and defecating in distribution aisles.
The Warehouse Group strongly denied the allegations, saying its technology monitors efficiency through scanning devices that are not AI-powered and have nothing to do with bathroom visits. Chief people officer Richard Parker said there have been no job losses from stocktaking drones or redundancies of permanent roles due to goods-to-person automation, and that the company currently has three additional permanent roles.
Union organiser Hayley Courtney told RNZ she had been fighting the issue for eight months and that supervisors and managers had followed people to the toilet. She said workers were striking for employment security and seeking contract assurances they could not be easily replaced when technology arrived. Workers RNZ spoke to said they feared for their jobs and felt treated as second-best to robots.