Dubbo Regional Council has weighed into the city's supermarket woes offering a fresh approach to filling shelves, orders and uniforms.
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It is acting as a conduit between workers who have been stood down from their regular jobs and Woolworths and Coles supermarkets, where visits by COVID-positive shoppers have forced staff into self-isolation.
The council is currently asking a "handful" of businesses to liaise with their workers about "temporary deployment" to supermarkets.
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Its senior projects officer jobs and skills, Luke Cameron, has confirmed the recent launch of an expression of interest (EOI) process for workers interested in casual jobs at the supermarkets.
"The idea behind it was essentially that our supermarkets are feeling the pressure to maintain consumable stock levels and there are a number of other businesses looking for options for staff to keep an income coming into households," he said.
You've got bus companies with experienced drivers. Unable to do their jobs at the moment, they are very well suited to delivery drivers."
- Dubbo Regional Council's Luke Cameron
On Tuesday, Mr Cameron told of about 20 individuals utilising the council's EOI process in the past couple of weeks.
He expects the number will rise should Dubbo's one-month lockdown extend beyond September 10.
Mr Cameron doesn't know if any of the 20 have yet scored a shift.
"It's early days at this point," he said.
"I am seeking feedback from the supermarkets' respective regional managers."
The senior projects officer said workers best suited for deployment to the supermarkets had experience in "any sort of customer facing role" or had a "fairly broad skills base".
Mr Cameron nominated bus drivers as an example of workers who could make the transition.
"You've got bus companies with experienced drivers," he said.
"Unable to do their jobs at the moment, they are very well suited to delivery drivers."
Mr Cameron said the supermarkets were looking in particular for "night fill assistants and online personal shoppers".
Visit dubbo.com.au/workforce.
Last week more than 6500 distribution centre and store staff employed by Woolworths, Coles and Aldi were forced to self-isolate causing product shortages and transport disruptions.
The supermarkets are hiring more staff.
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