Australia's Christmas booze supply under threat as warehouse workers threaten to walk off the job

Staff at warehouses supplying hundreds of Dan Murphy's and BWS bottle shops on Australia's east coast have threatened to strike in the lead up to Christmas .

The indefinite industrial action will start from next week at four distribution hubs in NSW and Victoria, all of which are owned by the Endeavour Group, which also runs 350 pubs under its Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group arm.

The ASX-listed Endeavour Group was spun off from the Woolworths Group in 2021.

The United Workers Union (UWU) have warned the supply of beer could dry up over Christmas if workers don't get their pay increase of at least 10 per cent annually.

UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said despite 'contingencies' the company has in place, the scale of the strike action would ensure disruptions to alcohol supply.

'There will be a booze shortage, if strike action goes ahead,' he told The Australian .

Primary Connect, which runs the warehouses for Endeavour Group, is understood to be working on building up reserves of products at retail stores and looking at using alternative distribution centres.

An Endeavour Group spokesperson said the company did not 'foresee any major impacts to stock over the busy festive period ahead'.

But Mr Kennedy said with 1,500 workers in total at the centres it would be extremely difficult to fill the supply chain gap at short notice.

'It will be on a scale that we actually haven't seen before... the network has never had more than one warehouse down at a time. This will be a factor of four down the eastern seaboard at the busiest time of year,' he said.

'It will be significant. You can't replace an automated warehouse with contingencies. You can't replace five million cartons in a hurry. There's no capacity in the system.'

The workers are asking for cost-of-living wage increases from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent annually, but Mr Kennedy said smaller increases would be considered provided they were above the country's inflation rate of 2.8 per cent.

Primary Connect has offered pay increases to staff at the four warehouses as part of negotiations.

It offered Erskine Park centre staff 12.05 per cent over three years, Melbourne South Regional workers 10 per cent over three years, Melbourne Liquor employees 12.1 per cent over four years and Wondonga staff 7.1 per cent over two years.

Mr Kennedy said an agreement could only be reached if wages increased by at least 4.5 per cent annually along with the removal of a 'Coaching and Productivity Framework' guideline.

The document outlines speeds at which employee tasks should be done and which the union claims could be used to reprimand staff who don't meet them.

Primary Connect defended the pay rates at the warehouses saying many team members working full-time earned between $85,000 to $95,000 a year and the productivity guideline was flexible.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Primary Connect for further comment.