Grill’d leaders in burger industry exploitation

8 December 2019

“Dear Grill’d Family” is how Grill’d boss Simon Crowe addressed all staff in a 27 November leaked internal memo, allowing the public to see exactly how deep corporate doublethink runs in the “socially responsible” burger empire.

Fortunately, workers aren’t swallowing this. We know a vicious anti-worker and anti-union company when we’re being exploited by one, and Grill’d has scientifically formulated an industrial relations recipe that takes full advantage of every available legal means of underpayment.

First is the below award enterprise bargaining agreement, which covers 4,000 workers in corporate-owned stores. Approved by the Fair Work Commission in 2015 after agitation by organised workers, this agreement was a significant improvement on the previous WorkChoices-era agreement. Nevertheless, it is a disaster for workers.

The agreement strips away penalty rates and other allowances in exchange for a measly pay rise. It offers a base rate just 34c above the award for adult staff, reduced to only 5c above the award for supervisory staff. In exchange for this marginal increase, all weekend and public holiday penalty rates, along with all other allowances, have been scrapped. This means some workers are paid $2,500 less per year than they would be entitled to on the award, which amounts to more than 10 percent of many Grill’d workers’ annual wages.

To illustrate the absurdity of the situation, a supervisory employee would have to work for 25 hours each and every shift for the compensatory loaded rate to make up for the $1.25 laundry allowance they were previously entitled to. If a non-supervisory employee worked for three hours on a Saturday, they would receive $1.02 compensation for the $15.03 they have lost in penalty rates. Every late night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday, Grill’d is cashing in on this sleight of hand.

The second ingredient in Grill’d’s industrial relations concoction is its compulsory traineeship program. “Trainees” are paid less than other staff, and “traineeships” can be dragged out by the company interminably. Grill’d has publicly admitted that the average completion time of its traineeships is 13 months, but in Victoria the average staff turnover is only nine months. This means many Grill’d workers only ever receive trainee wages. Store level managers are incentivised to reduce labour costs through these sorts of provisions.

Thirdly, Grill’d takes full advantage of the junior rates system, which enables the company to pay wages as low as $11.50 per hour and no penalty rates to 16-year-old workers.

By a combination of stripping away penalties and allowances, hiring young people and compelling workers to undertake compulsory traineeships, Grill’d has intensified the exploitation of its workforce. The average Grill’d worker earns $18.24 per hour – less than the minimum wage – with some individuals losing as much as $6,000 a year because of the company’s exploitative practices.

Grill’d workers are demanding a new agreement that restores award penalty rates, conditions and allowances, incorporates yearly pay rises and scraps compulsory traineeships. The company can well afford it: it has a turnover of around $370 million per year with an overseas expansion plan that aims to increase this to $1 billion within five years. We want to end the days of Grill’d taking advantage of its young and largely non-union workforce to make mega-profits.


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