The Fair Work Ombudsman don’t fuck around.
After auditing an honestly massive 565 fast-food outlets, they found that a 47% of ’em straight-up haven’t been paying their workers right. Of that worrying sub-set, the watchdog found most offences involved paying under minimum wage, and waving off well-deserved penalty and weekend rates.
The Ombudsman’s Michael Campbell said one of the more common ways workers are dicked out of their income involves employers choosing to pay a flat rate. They claim it’s to simplify the payroll process; while it supposedly takes would-be penalty rates into account, a third of employees under that system still get low-balled in the long-run.
An accurate portrayal of Australia’s underpaying employers.
Campbell told The Sydney Morning Herald the whole sector is clearly “grappling with the complexity of the industrial relations system.” That feeling is backed up by the Council of Small Business’ chief executive Peter Strong saying businesses oughta just work with the Ombudsman to work it out, rather than risk ha-yoooge penalties.
In any case, the findings are pretty grim, and they come at the end of a three-year dressing-down of basically the entire hospitality industry. So far, pubs, clubs, hotels, cafes and restaurants have also been investigated, with similar reported levels of payroll bullshittery.
As always, if you think your employer is being a touch screwy with your wages – and the figures show there are probably a few of you out there – feel free to contact the Ombudsman riiiight here.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.
