The Fair Work Ombudsman and McDonald’s Australia have embarked on a new national initiative designed to ensure employee pay packets for McDonald’s 85,000-strong national workforce are accurate. McDonald’s, in collaboration with the Fair Work Ombudsman, has set up a self-audit process to review about 8500 pay packets and correct any issues it may find, which the quick-service restaurant chain says is in line with its goal of being an employer of choice for young people, and operating its business... ...Read more »

Australian families and consumers face higher food and grocery prices for Australian-made products under new Fair Work Act provisions which are affecting shipping costs, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) warned today. Under the Federal Government’s Fair Work legislation, higher operating costs have been imposed on leading Australian food and grocery manufacturers in terms of paying local wages to foreign seafarers carrying domestic freight between Australian ports. AFGC Chief... ...Read more »

The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking legal action against the operators of two Chili’s restaurants for allegedly underpaying teenage staff.The litigation follows an extensive investigation into the Chili’s chain of restaurants which started in 2007. Chili’s (Shellharbour) Pty Ltd and Chili’s (Penrith) Pty Ltd will face the Federal Magistrates Court in Sydney. Court documents allege Chili’s (Shellharbour) Pty Ltd short-changed a 15-year-old part-time teenage girl $212 over... ...Read more »

Australia’s largest brewer Foster’s has told shareholders that the fixed salary of Chief Executive Ian Johnston will not rise in the 2009/10 Financial Year. “The CEO will not receive an increase in the current year,” Foster’s said in yesterday’s release of their Annual Report. “For senior management more broadly, most salaries will remain unchanged in the year ending June 30, 2010.” Last year, Mr Johnston – who was confirmed as CEO in late September... ...Read more »

Nestlé, the world’s largest food manufacturer, has threatened to move their home base away from Switzerland if the country places a cap on executive salaries.”It would be the beginning of an end,” Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck reportedly told Sonntag, a Swiss newspaper, as he saw it as a sign that the country had lost its legal certainty. High executive salaries, which have bordered on the obscene on Wall Street, have been in the firing line around the world ever since the onset... ...Read more »

More than 700 food services workers throughout Australia will be receive back pay totalling $470,000 following a national campaign to uphold their workplace rights by the Fair Work Ombudsman.The money – an average of $671 per employee – is being progressively reimbursed after the Ombudsman found they were underpaid. A six-month campaign targeted take-away food outlets, supermarkets, grocery stores, bread and cake shops, meat, fish and poultry distributors and dairy manufacturers. Of 481... ...Read more »

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Australia’s largest business representative, has described today’s decision by the Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) to maintain minimum wages at current levels as the best outcome for both employers and employees, and most importantly, one which will protect jobs. “It is a decision that is consistent with what should be Australia’s key priorities at this time – the ongoing viability of Australian businesses... ...Read more »

A young Hobart restaurant worker who believed she was being underpaid has triggered a review of the entitlements of more than 220 of her co-workers.While the 22-year-old will be reimbursed almost $70, another 129 staffers will also be back-paid a total of more than $22,000. The underpayments came to light after the restaurant agreed to do an internal audit following the young woman’s initial complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman. Fair Work Ombudsman Executive Director Michael Campbell said the... ...Read more »

The leading industry body for the restaurant sector is worried about the potential impact of the Award Modernisation proposal on the industry next year. “It is disappointing … that we are under great pressure from Australian Government reforms that could see the end of our industry, particularly in New South Wales,” CEO John Hart said this week. The restaurant industry is slated for massive change in 2010, Mr Hart suggested, when wage costs (in NSW for a business open weekends... ...Read more »

Staff at a popular confectionery wholesaler in Sydney’s western suburbs have got a little bit extra to spend this month after an investigation by the national pay protector.A random audit of the unnamed company by the Federal Workplace Ombudsman has found four staff had been underpaid for the past five years. After calculations by workplace inspectors, the workers will share back-payments totalling $15,300, or an average of $3825 each. Workplace Ombudsman Executive Director Michael Campbell... ...Read more »