Fair Work win for South Australian Maccas workers
McDonald’s workers across 18 SA franchises can negotiate as a group after a “landmark” ruling by the Fair Work Commission.
In a decision published today, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) won its bid to require McDonald’s Franchises in SA to negotiate with their workforces and the union.
The decision covers over 5000 workers from 53 McDonald’s stores across the state, run by 18 employers.
These franchises in SA will have to negotiate with workers and the union over pay and entitlements. The outcome does not extend to corporate-owned McDonald’s stores or McDonald’s stores interstate.
SDA SA Secretary Josh Peak said the ruling was “a landmark win for low-paid fast-food workers in Australia”.
“The fast-food industry has the highest proportion of award-reliant workers in the country, these workers deserve to be covered by Enterprise Agreements,” Peak said.
“This decision sends a clear message: Corporate America can no longer deny their low-paid Australian workers the right to bargain.”
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McDonald’s is Australia’s largest fast food chain and since 2020, has provided workers with minimum pay and entitlements. The fast food industry has the highest proportion of employees who are only paid minimum award rates.
The average employee covered by the Fast Food Industry Award 2020 is 21 years old, works about 20 hours a week and earns a $18.30 casual rate of pay. 61.8 per cent of employees are paid junior pay rates, while the adult casual rate of pay is $24.30 per hour.
The Fair Work decision comes after hearings in February, which heard from three SA Licensees of McDonald’s stores across the state including Green Fields, Pooraka, Camden Park, Mount Barker, West Beach, and Victor Harbor stores.
The SA Licensees said during the hearings that their employees hadn’t expressed interest in having an enterprise agreement, but all three licensees that were cross-examined agreed they had never actually asked.
The SDA had signatures of 232 of 379 employees they approached via a union survey that agreed with the statement “I support bargaining for better pay and rights at Maccas”.
The Fair Work Commission rejected McDonald’s arguments that the SDA needed the majority support of 5000 workers and accepted the union survey results showed a “significant proportion” of employees backed enterprise bargaining.
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A Maccas is a Maccas
The McDonald’s restaurants can bargain together despite having different employers due to their common interests, a possibility because of changes the Albanese federal government made to Fair Work legislation.
The legislative changes came into effect in June 2023 to support low-paid workers, and McDonald’s was the first employer to fight against the laws.
McDonald’s argued that the franchises don’t share common interests, which was lost.
The Fair Work Commission heard that each franchise uses standardised position descriptions and found the work performed by employees across all restaurants is “fundamentally the same”.
“That there are some differences between restaurants, such the fact that some have McCafé operations and some do not, or that the restaurants’ layout and size may be different, do not detract from these fundamental similarities,” the decision read.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), which supported the SDA and made submissions to the hearings in this case, said the argument that these franchises don’t share common interests “failed to stack up”.
“Anyone who has been to a McDonald’s store knows they look the same, their products are the same, right down to the pickles, sesame seed buns and the minimum wages the staff are on,” ACTU President Michele O’Neil said.
“Everything is completely standardised, yet McDonald’s expects teenagers and young workers to accept low pay rates and be denied union support to bargain across sites to be able to get a better deal.
“The Maccas ruling means more workers and their unions will be able to negotiate collective agreements that will deliver better wages and conditions.”
