Harry Hartog and Berkelouw Books workers strike
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) has announced staff from Harry Hartog and Berkelouw Books are taking industrial action to “secure a fair new agreement” to replace an agreement negotiated in 2012.
According to the RAFFWU, the booksellers are campaigning for: a wage of $31 per hour; the return of penalty rates; protection against unfair treatment; the end of discrimination; leave and associated conditions; and job security rights (such as part time employment opportunities and protections in case of redundancies).
RAFFWU said, “Harry Hartog and Berkelouw Books members of RAFFWU unanimously voted to commence industrial action on Wednesday 10 December, in an effort to move their employers to make a fair offer in bargaining. Bans will start in stores on Wednesday and include bans on meetings with managers, receiving stock, restocking shelves and other actions.”
RAFFWU secretary Loukas Kakogiannis told Books+Publishing, “We have had four bargaining meetings with Harry Hartog and Berkelouw Books management. The most recent meeting was this morning [10 December] and there is another meeting scheduled for Friday 12 December.”
Kakogiannis said, “What management have put on the table to date falls far short of a fair agreement that is acceptable to our members. We have been asking for meetings every day. We’ve told management that we want to get an agreement by Christmas.”
The most recent Fair Work Agreement was negotiated in 2012 and came into effect in January 2013, with the previous agreement having been negotiated in 2004 and coming into effect in January 2005.
Kakogiannis said the current agreement “casualises part-time work and most of our bookseller members are locked into 4-hour minimum part-time contracts”.
A spokesperson for the Harry Hartog and Berkelouw Books’ management team told Books+Publishing, “The agreements were drawn up following consultation with our staff, who had requested and agreed on a consolidated pay structure. This meant a majority of penalty rates were incorporated into our well-above-award base rate of pay for staff.”
When the two previous agreements were approved by the Fair Work Commission, they passed the better off overall test (BOOT), according to the spokesperson. Books+Publishing understands that staff salaries have increased by 4–5% with BOOT.
The previous agreements “were drawn up following consultation with our team, who had requested and agreed on a consolidated pay structure. This meant a majority of penalty rates were incorporated into our well-above-award base rate of pay,” said the spokesperson.
For the ongoing discussions, the spokesperson noted the management team has “put forward a fair, substantial offer in good faith, which meets our team’s request to change from a consolidated rate of pay that incorporates penalty loadings in the base rate, to one that has penalty rates paid during standard loading periods for staff.”
“This is on top of offering all of our valued team improved conditions and continued above-award rates, comprehensive training and generous discounts in an inclusive and welcoming environment,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson added, “We are continuing to negotiate in good faith with the union, as a family-owned, independent retailer. We recognise the right to take protected industrial action under the Fair Work Act during bargaining and remain committed to listening and communicating with staff over coming weeks.”
Harry Hartog Macquarie bookseller and supervisor Rohan McCartney, who also spoke to Books+Publishing, said “work is definitely being done in the bargaining room with Harry Hartog [and] Berkelouw Books. We’re very keen to be able to achieve an agreement that shows booksellers how much the business does value them and appreciate them.”
Discussing the processes of unionising, McCartney said it began just over a year ago in response to “a growing sentiment that we [staff] weren’t being paid to a standard [they] thought was fair when […] in comparison to other bookstores like Better Read Than Dead and Readings, as well as policies surrounding leave and a Christmas blackout period”.
McCartney noted that he studies full time and works 4 days a week to be able to “make rent and start some kind of savings.”
“Quite a lot of our staff remain living at home as adults in order to not have to pay rent or they work another job the rest of the week,” he said. “The hours we are allocated per store has also been a problem that we’re working on fixing.”
As frontliners of the industry, booksellers often have connections to multiple areas of the publishing industry. “Booksellers need the support to be able to continue existing in a retail space,” said McCartney, “while also bringing with them diverse ideas and enthusiasm that make walking into a bookstore so special.”
Support for staff working at Harry Hartog and Berkelouw Books has begun circulating on social media.
Author and editor Emma Pei Yin (When Sleeping Women Wake, Hachette) said, “As a former bookseller myself, I know how much unseen labour lives in this work: the care behind every recommendation, the trust built with community over time. […] I want to send the staff at Harry Hartog my love, support and respect as they advocate for better working conditions. However this moment unfolds, I hope they feel held by their wider community: authors, readers and fellow booksellers alike.”
In 2022, the RAFFWU facilitated an enterprise bargaining agreement between staff and owners for both Sydney bookshop Better Read Than Dead and Melbourne bookshop Readings.
RAFFWU has organised a rally to support workers for Saturday 13 December 2025 as well as an online donation fund. Kakogiannis said, “Workers are going on strike on Saturday and Sunday because they want a fair enterprise agreement that gives them living wages, secure jobs, and fair treatment protections.”
More information is available on the RAFFWU website.
Category: Local news
