Fresh allegations have emerged from current and former McDonald’s managers who claim they were expected to complete hours of unpaid work on days off or at home.
Last week, fast food workers union, the SDA launched a class action seeking back pay for 25,000 McDonald’s managers and supervisors over what it alleges is a “widespread and systematic” practice of unpaid work.
The workers are seeking an estimated $100 million in back pay after being required “to work unpaid for 30 minutes before their rostered start, conducting what is known as a ‘pre-shift check’ and an average of 30 minutes after their rostered shift finished to complete handover tasks,” the union said.
It alleges the practice has been happening since December 2017.
But one former McDonald’s manager claims the practice goes back as far as 30 years.
“This practice of underpaying managers at McDonald’s is nothing new from my experience,” he told news.com.au, on the condition of anonymity.
“Meetings, training, stocktake were always non-paid, but the one that really stuck with me was unloading the supply truck.
“For many years I was in charge of the stock being delivered.”
The ex-manager added: “This involved meeting the large semi-trailer early in the morning once a week unloading frozen products and other stock.
“It would be quite physical, take several hours, invariably on my day off and always unpaid.
“Another extra duty was statistics (basically stocktake),” he said. “It was done once a month and you took the paperwork home.”
Another McDonald’s shift supervisor and department manager supported the claim that besides unpaid work both before and after a shift, on their days off managers are “expected to come in for multiple hours unpaid to complete tasks”.
Another former manager told news.com.au that “it was common practice to work a minimum two hours per shift unpaid, as well as giving up three-plus hours of our free time every week to attend meetings or unload deliveries.”
The former manager added that “if the float was down, it came out of our pockets”.
The union alleges the practice of requiring managers to complete pre-and-post shift checklists unpaid was a deliberate strategy by McDonald’s to bring the wage bill down.
McDonald’s failed to comment on the latest claims by news.com.au’s deadline, but in a statement about the class action, a McDonald’s Australia spokesperson said: “McDonald’s Australia takes its obligations under all applicable employment laws very seriously.”
“We value our people and the contributions they make to our restaurants every day.”
“We are committed to ensuring they receive all correct workplace entitlements and pay under the Fast Food Industry Award and the former enterprise agreement.”
“McDonald’s will respond to the claim in due course.”
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