Coles put in place on Wednesday a two-pronged strategy to address the worsening labour row at its warehouses. It asked Fair Work Australia (FWA) to assume jurisdiction over the problem, while Toll Holdings made a new wage offer to the striking workers.

On the same day, FWA ordered the 200 striking warehousemen at the Goulburn distribution centre in New South Wales to return to their jobs. The Goulburn workers walked off their jobs to show sympathy for 600 Melbourne warehouse workers who seek the same pay and work conditions as their colleagues in other Coles warehouses.

The Goulburn workers were back on their jobs by 12:30 p.m. of Wednesday.

Coles owns and operates the Goulburn facility, unlike the one in Melbourne which is owned by Coles but operated by Toll Holdings.

In ordering Coles workers at its two warehouses, to return to work, the FWA ruled that the employees could not pursue more industrial action for three weeks. The ban on strikes cover three Coles warehouses, including one in Sydney where no job walk-off has taken place yet.

There are, however, indicators of a sympathy strike at the Sydney warehouse, which prompted Coles to take immediate action to prevent the spread of industrial action in the supermarket giant's warehouses. A massive labour problem could further disrupt delivery of goods to its outlets and in the process empty grocery shelves.

Toll made the warehouse workers a new wage offer to end the strike. The members of National Union of Workers (NUW) are set to vote on the Toll offer on Thursday.

Tim Kennedy, Victorian secretary of NUW, said the Toll offer failed to meet the needs of workers in five key issues, but gave the union members the right to hear the offer and vote on it. The union did not provide details of the Toll offer because it wants union members to be the first to know the details.

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