Zero tolerance for zero hours

Fast food workers are on the frontline in the fight against zero-hour contracts, with a union saying bosses have all the power.

Working the night shift a few months ago Martha, a 19-year-old KFC worker in Wellington, got into a dispute with her boss over whose job it was to finish a task. When she refused to do it, the “big boss” reminded her that he was currently hiring new staff – an implicit threat that her hours could be cut.

“In my head, I was thinking ‘is that a threat? Are you threatening me … Are you serious? I’ve been working here for four years’. And for him to just say that … I wasn’t mad, it was just hurtful.”

Martha’s voice breaks as she talks about work, and before long, tears are running down her face. “Sorry,” she says. “It’s just frustrating.”

McDonald’s Korea sacks union member for fast food activism

McDonald’s Korea union member dismissed for fast food activism Gahyun Lee was dismissed from her job at a McDonald’s outlet in Yeokgok, Gyeonggi Province on September 15 following her visit to Los Angeles earlier that month to support the national action by US fast food workers. Management had previously warned her about union activity in May – citing a phone call from the head office – after she denounced wage and scheduling manipulation and unsafe workplace practices at a May 15 Seoul rally in support of global fast food workers. Management refused to provide her with an explanation of why her contract was terminated, instead telling her to reapply for the job. Her application was rejected. The Arbeit Workers’ Union (which organizes precarious workers) is demanding her reinstatement and publicizing her case. You can support them – CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE to McDonald’s Korea corporate management calling on the company to reinstate Gahyun Lee, recognize union rights and representation and enter into good faith talks with the union over unfair practices. E-mail: iuf Rampe du Pont-Rouge, 8, CH-1213, Petit-Lancy (Switzerland) www.iuf.org Follow us on Facebook and Twitter Subscribe to IUF NEWS by e-mail unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences View it in your browser

#fastfoodglobal protests kick off in Auckland

Workers in Auckland will be joining forces with fast food workers – in North and South America, across

#fastfoodglobal – the global fight of fast food workers for decent wages and conditions

Europe, Asia, and in Africa – to stand up and take action for fairer pay, that anyone who works for a living deserves.

Low wage workers will rally outside McDonalds flagship restaurant in Auckland today (Thursday 15th May) as the first action in a new worldwide campaign for fair pay, and the right for fast food workers to join unions.

The campaign, #fastfoodglobal was called by the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Association) after a worldwide conference of fast food workers held in New York last week.

Unite organiser, Joe Carolan, who recently returned from the US conference, said:

“New Zealand is one of very few countries that have union agreements covering fast food workers. Many of the conditions workers in other countries are struggling to win – we have already achieved here. We are taking action today to support Fast Food workers in the USA and other countries who are fighting for these same conditions.”

McStrike – A Delegate’s Tale

Taylor M. is a seventeen year old west Auckland McDonald’s worker, Unite Union delegate and Socialist Aotearoa member. This is her account of the McStrike campaign from the Socialist Aotearoa website.

On April 29th, negotiations between Unite Union and McDonald’s broke down over the renewal of our existing collective agreement. A collective agreement is the agreement workers are moved onto after joining the union, which takes them off their individual contracts. Unlike the original contract you’re given when you start working at McDonalds, this agreement allows for negotiation and improvements in future as the union takes into account worker’s requests and complaints when redrafting the agreement for the following year and adding their voices in.

Letter to Speaker of NZ Parliament

The following letter has been sent to the speaker of the NZ parliament alleging a breach of priviledge by McDonald’s for victimising a worker for what they said at a select committee meeting.

No Right Turn reports a similar case a few years ago. They commented: “This is an open and shut contempt of Parliament. Evidence given before Select Committees is protected by Parliamentary Privilege, and the House’s Standing orders include “assaulting, threatening, or disadvantaging a person on account of evidence given by that person to the House or a committee” as an example of contempt. In 2006, TVNZ was fined and forced to apologise to Parliament [PDF] for disadvantaging a witness (outgoing CEO Ian Fraser) by bringing internal disciplinary proceedings against him. McDonald’s has gone further, against a more vulnerable witness, and deserves a far harsher punishment.”

The International Union of Foodworkers has launched an online campaign to protest this victimisation of a union activist.

You can support Sean Bailey and Unite, CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO MCDONALD’S demanding his reinstatement!

LETTER TO THE SPEAKER OF THE NZ PARLIAMENT

To Speaker Rt Hon David Carter,

New Zealand Parliament

Dear Mr Carter,

On October 14 McDonald’s sacked Unite Union delegate Sean Bailey.

Unite Union believes Sean Bailey has been subject to victimisation after he appeared before the industrial relations select committee on September 11.

The union also believes he has been targeted for exposing serial law breaking by the company over not providing meal breaks as mandated under the current law.

On September 17, just a week after appearing before the select committee, Sean received a disciplinary letter alleging he had accessed wage and time records in late April for staff in his store and made them available to the union. (see Appendix A)

The company held on to the information supporting that allegation (an in store video) for five months until after he had appeared before the select committee and the dispute over the collective agreement had been concluded before bringing the disciplinary charges.

The company followed this letter up with another dated September 27 with charges directly related to his appearance before the select committee. The second disciplinary letter said: “It appears that what you have said during the course of the select committee hearing and

doing so in uniform may give rise to breaches of your obligations to your employer.” (See Appendix B)

Parliament’s Standing Orders prohibits “… Threatening or disadvantaging a person on account of evidence given by that person to the House or a committee”.

The company indicated to us prior to holding the disciplinary meeting to consider their charges against Sean that they wanted to proceed with the complaint over accessing wage and time records before considering the charge over the select committee appearance. We argued that we did not think that it was appropriate to separate the issues and we needed to consider the gravity of the apparent contempt of parliament and its legal implications. We believed that the company had joined the issues and they could not be unilaterally separated. (See Appendix C for correspondence between the parties)

In the end the company simply proceeded with the disciplinary action in Sean’s absence on their preferred charge and wrote a preliminary decision to dismiss on October 10. (See Appendix D). They did this without confirming that that was their intention rather than simply their preference. We objected by email on October 13. (See Appendix E). The company confirmed the dismissal on October 14. (See appendix F). The company responded to my objections on October 15. (See Appendix G)

McDonald’s is currently subject to a legal action by Unite Union over failing to provide 30-minute meal breaks for many shifts of more than four hours. Unite has discovered that the breaches of the law have been routine. The company had been claiming to the union that they were not able to provide us with wage and time records that included breaks taken.

We asked our delegates to check if this was true. We were able to get information from a number of stores to prove that this claim was not true so we formally wrote and asked for that information for all our members as is our legal right.

The then “National Director of HR and Talent” for McDonald’s Lauren Voyce responded in an email that repeated the lie that McDonald’s “does not record employees taking breaks”. Sean is being sacked for exposing that lie. (See Appendix H)

We believe there has been pre-meditation in the actions taken against Sean. He had been an active delegate in the four months of the dispute the union had with McDonald’s over a renewal of the collective agreement. The McRush franchise of McDonald’s has a clear majority of its staff in the union. This was in large part to the effectiveness of Sean Bailey as a delegate.

Laura Thompson, the Business Partner and HR manager for the McRush Franchise owned stores sent a text to Sean in early August saying “You better watch out because I will fire you for the smallest things you do in the store”. (see Appendix I)

Sean also has a personal grievance against the McRush Franchisee for cutting his hours in an unreasonable and unlawful fashion because of his union role during the dispute.

Video footage allegedly showing Sean printing off the wage and time records was kept for 5 months before being used as part of the disciplinary process. Laura Thompson had previously told Unite that video footage was not kept for more than 2 weeks when we wanted an allegation of sexual assault investigated yet they have managed to produce video footage from the end of April

It is our belief that McDonald’s deliberately withheld the disciplinary action against Sean until after the dispute between the company and Unite had been settled. In so doing they have removed any pretense that they could claim a loss of trust and confidence as he has been working there continuously for the entire period. It is not good faith practice to collect grievances and then spring them on someone much later rather than dealing with them promptly.

The decision to proceed with the charges against Sean and his subsequent dismissal appears to have been provoked by Sean’s appearance before the select committee. We ask that the Speaker take action to remedy this grave injustice.

Yours Sincerely

Mike Treen
National Director
Unite Union

Unite union defends workers breaks

Unite Union National Director Mike Treen presented the union’s submission to the parliamentary select committee discussing the proposed law changes in the industrial relations area.

Unite decided to focus its submission on a government proposal to remove the legal entitlements for breaks. Currently the law requires a 30-minute meal break after 4 hours work, a 10-minute rest break after working a minimum of two hours and a second 10-minute break after working six hours. The current law also allows the workers to decide to take their breaks in the middle of the relevant work periods if they aren’t able to agree to an alternative arrangement with their boss.

The new law simply says that breaks should be “reasonable” and compensation for missed breaks can be agreed.

The following article is based on notes used by Mike Treen to speak to the Unite Union submission to the select committee hearing on September 11.

 

Unite McDonald’s members Taylor Mcloon and Sean bailey and Unite Mational Director Mike Treen at the selct committee hearing on planned employment law changes

Getting breaks has been one of the biggest problems in the fast food industry.

The requirement for breaks as specified in either the employment contract or law has been routinely ignored.

Companies in this sector tightly control the labour hours allocated to stores.

Usually a bare minimum staff are available to managers to run a store. In that situation any absences or sudden rushes in demand makes it difficult to operate a store without all hands on deck all the time.

Workers are also extremely reluctant to let their mates down when a store is busy and won’t take their break.

A large number of migrant workers work in this industry and are often reluctant to assert their rights because they are hoping for a promotion to manager to pursue work or residence visa opportunities.

A company investigation of a KFC up north revealed the majority Indian workers in the store actually didn’t believe they had the right to a break.

There is usually no compensation clauses in employment agreements for lost breaks.

This industry, like the hotels and security where we also represent many workers, have what are being called “Zero-hour” contracts in the UK. This means there are no minimum hours stipulated in the agreement.

This gives enormous power to often young and inexperienced managers to use rostering to reward or punish a worker depending on how much you are considered a “team player”.

A worker who insists on their right to a break could find their rostered hours cut the following week. Reducing a workers hours is also used as a disciplinary tool for lateness etc without going through a proper process.

Breaks are of course important for health and safety. Company head offices always assured us that they told their managers that breaks should be given.

However we are dealing with the reality of an industry where there is a tremendous inequality of power between the young often migrant workers and the company generally or their store manager.

To be honest as a union we found it hard to even enforce the contract.

Prior to the law change there were no meal breaks unless you worked a 5 hour shift and no second rest break unless the crew worked a full 8-hour shift.

Rosters would be drawn up to avoid break entitlements but workers would end up working longer than their rostered shift without a break.

Workers would be rostered 5 hours with no meal break in the shift roster but end up working 6 or 7 because the store was busy. Similarly they would be rostered 7.5 hours with no second rest break planned for but end up working 8 or more hours without a second break.

Enforcing the contractual right to a break became easier when the law was changed. It was easier for workers to say “I want a break – it’s the law”. Making the meal break entitlement kick in after 4 hours and the second break after six hours was also helpful.

The collective agreements we have negotiated in the last few years have been able to largely include these legal improvements. But enforcement remains a challenge. We still have meal breaks being rostered after one hour into a shift. We still have people being rostered 4 or 6 hours but working beyond that time without a break or any compensation for missing it.

Only one company has agreed to compensation for missing a rest break (but not for missing the meal break) – McDonald’s. We are seeking compensation for missed meal breaks as well. From the wage and time records we have it seems workers have been working more than four hours without a meal break on average a 100 times a month in every store. Sometimes they will only work a few minutes beyond the four hours but often they worked 5 or 6 hours without a meal break. We will be arguing that issue in court but McDonald’s is not unusual in that regard. That is the situation for for tens of thousands of workers in New Zealand.

Having the legal obligation to provide breaks has made our job easier. We were able to improve the clauses in the collective agreements but also just the knowledge it was law made workers a bit more willing to speak up and be heard.

Without the law an industry with tens of thousands of workers would have continued to be serial offender on the breaks issue. Workers without the protection of a collective agreement will be in an even more impossible situation.

The desire for flexibility is one thing but when that flexibility means you routinely miss out on a basic right which is what did exist in this industry its a giant step backwards.

– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/09/13/unite-union-defends-workers-breaks/?preview=true&preview_id=31250&preview_nonce=4c4adf86f5#sthash.nZgWmmF9.dpuf

Unite defends NZ Workers breaks from Government

Unite Union National Director Mike Treen presents the union’s submission to the parliamentary select committee discussing the proposed law changes in the industrial relations area.

Unite decided to focus its submission on a government proposal to remove the legal requirements for breaks. Currently the law requires a 30 minute meal break after 4 hours work, a 10 minute rest break after working a minimum of two hours and a second 10-minute break after working six hours. The current law also allows the workers to decide to take their breaks in the middle of the relevant work periods if they aren’t able to agree to an alternative arrangement with their boss.

The new law simply says that breaks should be “reasonable” and compensation for missed breaks can be agreed.

Taylor, Sean and Mike defend workers breaks

Unite delegates from McDonald’s Taylor McLoon and Sean Bailey join Mike Treen to respond to questions from the select committee members.

McStriker : Backpaid in full

Unite Union organiser Gary Cranston met Kapil Choudhary on an energetic and deeply heated strike at McDonald’s Wairau road during the McStrike campaign for a new Collective Agreement. Kapil was striking over being left on the wrong pay rate since November 2011. When asked to review Kapil’s CCO status, the company claimed they were unable to find the paperwork detailing the completion of his CCO and as such, couldn’t back pay him.

Kapil Choudhary (second left) on Wairau Rd picket during McDonald’s dispute. New Collective Agreement has now been agreed.

Thankfully, Kapil still had his CCO completion certificate handy, so he sent the mysteriously missing document through to his organiser, then it was sent on to the company and Kapil was backpaid in full, his CCO (+12 months service) recognised and his pay rate raised from minimum wage to $14/hour.

It is alleged that Kapil wqas lied to by a manager who told him that qualifications gained at McOpCo stores aren’t transferred over when a worker moves from a franchise store. He was also told [by the same manager] that he couldn’t go for his crew trainer training as he hadn’t completed his CCO book.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there are two lessons to be learned here folks;

One: Contact your union organiser if you suspect you are on the wrong pay rate or you are receiving incorrect information or advise from management.

Two: Keep your paperwork safe, yourself! You might find that it has magically gone missing when it comes time for the company to find it. Especially if money is at stake.

Kapil is now persuing a claim for career discrimination.

Unite makes gains on insecure hours in McDonald’s contract

By Mike Treen

(Reprinted from The Daily Blog)

Unite Union is in the process of ratifying a new collective agreement with McDonald’s that is a significant step forward in getting improved security of hours for that company’s 9500 employees. It comes after negotiations broke down at the end of April and four months of action by members and supporters at stores around the country.

Unite delegates training at day at the Unite office

The new fairer rostering clause is the most important change in the agreement and applies to all members. The power to roster someone or not is the most important weapon for controlling and disciplining the workforce.

The new clause affirms the the importance of “rostering employees fairly and reasonably”.

It says that “Where additional hours become available in a restaurant current employees will be offered additional shifts before new employees are employed.” There is an added obligation that “additional shifts will be notified to employees on the crew notice board”.

When hours have to be reduced in store then the reduction “will be uniformly applied” so they can’t cut just some members shifts while other stay the same or even get more.

Where members have problems with their shifts they can raise the matter with their manager, get their own wage and time records, and if they are not satisfied with the response have the issue escalated to the HR department who must “investigate and share relevant information.”

A union representative can be involved at any stage of that process. If the union believes there is a store wide problem it can be taken to the HR department “who will investigate and share relevant information.”

The obligation to “share relevant information” is an important obligation as it has often been difficult in the past to get information from the company regarding rosters and hours in a store.

The company has also committed to stronger education of managers and monitoring and enforcement measures, including the issue in crew questionnaires and posters in store explaining the policy and the escalation process crew can use if they aren’t happy.

Union member only payment

All union members who joined before April 29 (when negotiations broke down) will receive a special payment when this agreement is ratified. Nonunion staff do not receive this payment. In return for this payment the union agrees to allow the company to pass on the terms and conditions to nonunion staff. The amount paid depend on the average hours worked in the previous 8 weeks. Union members who work over 30 hours on average get $200 (gross). Union members who work 21-30 hours on average get $125 (gross). Union members who work 20 hours or less on average get $100 (gross).

Improved breaks clause

An important part of the new agreement is ensuring that the current legal obligations to provide breaks (which is being repealed by the government) is maintained. The company had also wanted to go back to a 10-minute rest break. Unite has been able to get the legal rest break of 10 minutes increased to 15 minutes in all its collective agreements.

The new clause ensures a 15 minute paid break in the 3-hour minimum shift. The 30 minute unpaid meal break is required for working more than 4 hours and a second 15 minute break kicks in for working more than six hours. This is the first time it has actually been in the agreement that the second rest break must happen for working more than six hours.

Workers will be compensated an additional 15 minutes pay is they miss a rest break. We believe workers should also be compensated for missing the meal break but the company and union are in dispute on that issue with differing interpretations of a clause in the old collective agreement and will probably end up in court over the issue. If we are successful workers could be owed several million dollars.

In this agreement we included a clause that the union had the right to seek a penalty and compensation for individual workers if they miss their meal break. The company has also committed to doing a more thorough auditing process of stores to ensure compliance with the breaks clause.

Wage increase modest

The wage increase is modest and constrained by the 25 cent an hour minimum wage movement. This was increased to at least 30 cents an hour for most workers but McDonald’s still remain behind rates paid at KFC – a gap which we had hoped to close more.

There were other small improvements around training being available to everyone within three months of starting and the higher rates that result from completing the training to apply from the date their books are submitted. The agreement also spells out that no one can be forced to work outside their availability – especially overnight shifts.

The new collective agreement will also be made available to all new staff with a membership form attached for those who want to join the union. The collective agreement itself has been radically rewritten to make it make more user friendly and is now half its previous length because a lot of company propaganda has been removed.

The on-line vote on the new collective agreement is currently running at 90% in favour so it seems that the members agree that the agreement offers us an opportunity to push back against the casualisation that has marked the fast food industry since the deunionisation of the industry in the early 1990s.

In 2003 when Unite Union decided to start reorganising some of the sectors of the economy that had largely lost union representation and collective agreements we were horrified at the prevalence of what overseas has been dubbed “zero-hour contracts”. Most of the workers we represent today in fast food, movie theatres, security, call centres, and hotels had individual employment agreements that had no guaranteed hours. Workers also rarely got their proper breaks – especially in fast food.

In the UK the fact that an estimated one million workers are on zero hour contracts has become a national scandal. In the USA there is the beginnings of a widespread revolt against insecure hours and low wages with nationwide strikes planned for yesterday.

Whilst we haven’t eliminated those problems we have introduced clauses in all the main agreements that affirm the right to secure hours and constrain the employers right to hire new staff before offering the hours that are available to existing staff first. Each new collective agreement has tightened up on the clauses to increase the protections. With the most recent Restaurant Brands agreement (covering KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks) and now the McDonald’s agreement we have included clauses that demand the sharing of information with members and the union when disputes over staffing and rostering happens. We think this will significantly strengthen our position when we get into arguments over whether the company is actually complying with its obligations under the collective agreements. However Wendy’s is the only company we have an agreement for guaranteed hours for crew after 2 years service.

It is probable that the percentage of workers on zero hour contracts in New Zealand is larger than the UK. The labour movement as a whole should be making the issue a national scandal in this country.

In 2015 Unite will be renegotiating the major fast food contracts with the goal of moving from secure hours to guaranteed hours for most staff.

– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/08/30/unite-makes-gains-on-necure-hours-in-mcdonalds-contract/#sthash.8IlHttbA.dpuf

(Unite National Director Mike Treen has a blog hosted on the TheDailyBlog website. The site is sponsored by several unions and hosts some of New Zealand’s leading progressive commentators. Mike’s blog will be covering union news and general political comment but the views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of Unite Union.)

McDonald’s Clendon lunchtime strike (8/813)

Mcds Clendon always wanting to be the first out of the gates, leads the first strikes of the day on Thursday for Auckland. The strike was lead by their union strong site delegates who organised there own strike in protest at the lack of movement by McDonald’s on there pay claims. Mcds Clendon had 7 workers who walked off their shift to show support to the Mcstrike Campaign. Of those 7 workers 3 of them had their first taste of a Mcstrike. Well done Clendon community who supported by not buying McDonald’s during the strike.

 

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