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The history of the SDA

The SDA has looked after the rights of retail workers for more than 130 years.

In March 1890, the Retail Assistants’ Union of South Australia was formed in Adelaide.

18 years later in 1908, unions representing retail workers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia joined together to become Federally registered as the Shop Assistants’ and Warehouse Employees’ Federation of Australia.

Throughout our history, the SDA and the union movement have been at the forefront of industrial and positive change in your workplaces.

We have fought to ensure Australian workers receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, have the right to time off and are treated with respect at work.

SDA South Australia's original logo

The strong working rights that Australians enjoy today were fought for and won by unions and union members.

WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED

You can thank SDA Union Members for:

  • One of the highest minimum wages in the world

  • Public holidays

  • Universal superannuation

  • Health and safety rights

  • Equal pay for women

  • Parental leave

  • Penalty rates

  • Leave entitlements

  • The right to bargain and negotiate

  • Job security

SDA achievements

Minimum wage and strong pay rises

SDA Members are among the highest paid retail, fast food and warehousing workers in the world.

In 2022 and 2023, a claim by Australian Unions and the SDA led to historic increases to the minimum wage.

Every year, the SDA and Australian Unions push for real wage increases for workers in the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review.


Public holidays

The SDA has always been at the forefront of protecting and advancing your rights on public holidays.

It’s thanks to advocacy by the SDA that the majority of retail, fast food and warehousing workers have:

  • Voluntary working rights on public holidays
  • The right to earn public holiday penalty rates usually of 200-250%
  • The right to the day off without loss of pay if you’re permanent

In 2012 and 2015, South Australia and the Northern Territory respectively became the first places in the world to recognise Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as public holidays past 7pm.

In 2023, after years of campaigning, we won Easter Sunday as a permanent public holiday in SA and NT. A day that nearly every other state recognises as a public holiday.


Universal superannuation

Universal superannuation was fought for and won by the union movement to ensure that all workers can retire with dignity.

The SDA continues to campaign to ensure our super system works effectively for all workers.

Thanks to campaigning by the SDA, in 2022, we won the right for all workers aged 18 years old and over to be paid superannuation, no matter how much they earn each week.

In 2024, the Federal Labor Government announced superannuation would be paid on paid parental leave from July 2025, after decades of union campaigning.

The cover of The Shop Assistant Magazine from March 1987.


Health and safety rights

Safety is union business and unions have always advocated for safer workplaces.

The SDA has been involved in pushing for strong health and safety laws to ensure workers’ safety from physical and psychosocial hazards.

The SDA continues to campaign to prevent and elminate customer abuse and violence from retail and fast food.

In 2022, harsher penalties for assaulting shop workers were introduced in South Australia to deter customer abuse.


Leave entitlements

Strong paid leave provisions were won by unions.

In the 1970s, unions won 4 weeks paid annual leave as the national standard to ensure workers can have time off without loss of pay.

Thanks to unions, 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave is a right for all Australian workers. This means every worker across Australia – including casuals – is entitled to 10 days paid leave if they’re experiencing domestic violence.

Woolworths supermarkets SDA members supporting campaign for 5 weeks annual leave


Bargaining and negotiations

In 1996, Enterprise Bargaining was introduced in 1996 which allowed workers and their unions to negotiate directly with their employer over pay and conditions.

Collective bargaining has helped deliver better wages than individual agreements for ordinary workers.

In 2022, the SDA pushed to strengthen federal bargaining laws and make it fairer, simpler and more accessible to all workers.

The SDA is one of Australia’s largest unions and continues to defend and improve the rights of Australians in work and in life.

The SDA is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that is owned by and works for our members.

Our members are front and centre in everything we do.

By standing with the SDA, our members stand for a fair go at work, for better pay and conditions and for safer workplaces.

Join over 200,000 SDA union members