Woolies chairman steps down amid 13% fall in profits; Sacked Grill’d worker wins payout: Midday Roundup

Ralph Waters will step down from the position of being Woolworths’ chairman and non-executive director, on the back of poor full-year financial results released this morning.

Woolworths announced its annual profit fell by 13% amid increased competition in Australia’s supermarket sector, along with increased competition from “foreign rivals” as well.

Gordon Cairns has been appointed as chairman, a role that will begin on September 1 – the same day as Waters will exit the job.

Cairns, previously the chairman of David Jones and Rebel Group, said in a statement the “most immediate issue is to identify new leadership to take the business forward”.

Sacked Grill’d worker wins payout

Kahlani Pyrah, a former worker at gourmet burger chain Grill’d, has reached a settlement with the company and will receive a substantial payout following allegations she was sacked for asking for award wages.

Pyrah claimed she was sacked from the burger chain after circulating a petition calling for full award entitlements for workers at Grill’d Camberwell.

She will not return to her former job.

The confidential payout, whichFairfax reports as being “substantial”, puts an end to an unfair dismissal case which was due to be heard in the Federal Court this week.

Pyrah told Fairfax she believes she has set a “positive example to hospitality workers that you can stand up for better wages and fair treatment and win”.

Shares up on open

Local shares have rallied, following a jump in Wall Street overnight.

Tristan K’nell, senior analyst at Quay Equities, said this morning the local market was taking a similar tone to yesterday on the back of positive news from Wall Street and a “huge spike” in the oil prices proving positive for the local energy sector.

“Market Turnover into lunch was well above average but this is exaggerated due to options expiry yesterday,” K’nell said.

“The market has lost a bit of ground from the open. We did have Moody’s downgrade its growth forecasts for major economies. This afternoon’s trade will be interesting, particularly to see if we track the Chinese market after it closed up 5.4% yesterday.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was up 0.4%, rising 18.6 points to 5251.9 points at 12.21pm AEST. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed up 2.27%, rising 369.26 points to 16654.8 points.