McDonald’s management could soon be asking their own staff “would you like fries with that” as they hand over weekly pay.
According to the fast-food giant, Australia’s industrial umpire should be compelled to consider non-monetary benefits – such as Happy Meals, chicken nuggets and Big Macs – when asking if a pay deal leaves workers better off.
The proposal could help the company trim penalty rates by counting food that staff eat on breaks as a form of benefit that leaves them “better off overall” compared with the award.
McDonald’s makes the call in a submission to the Senate inquiry on the Coalition’s industrial relations omnibus bill.
The bill specifies that the Fair Work Commission may have regard to overall benefits including non-monetary benefits when deciding whether to approve a pay deal.
That proposal prompted backlash from unions – which have long argued against “non-monetary” benefits, derided by the former opposition leader Bill Shorten as “pizza for penalty rates”.
But McDonald’s submitted the change did not go far enough. It called on the government to ensure “the commission must consider the overall benefits including non-monetary benefits (rather than being a discretionary factor)”.
“This proposal would ensure that there is a holistic assessment of whether an employee would be better off overall.”
The Victorian Trades Hall Council submitted that by allowing consideration of non-monetary benefits the Coalition bill would “water down the principal function of the [Better Off Overall Test] to the detriment of workers and work conditions across all industries”.
In its submission, the attorney general’s department said non-monetary benefits were “already considered by the Fair Work Commission, but the bill will serve to make this clearer”.
“For many employees, non-monetary benefits, such as flexible working arrangements, are often relevant to whether they are left better off overall under an agreement,” it said.
McDonald’s strongly supported additional flexibility for part-time workers, but suggested improvements to the “highly restrictive” mechanism that allows them to pick up extra hours at ordinary time rates.
It proposed the flexibility be applied to all part-time workers, removing a key safeguard that only those working a minimum of 16 hours a week can take on extra hours.
McDonald’s also wants to dispense with a requirement for an agreement in writing, and instead allow extra hours to be offered during the relevant shift.
McDonald’s workers were previously covered by a 2013 enterprise agreement in which the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association traded away penalty rates for higher base rates of pay.
During bargaining for a new agreement in 2019, a member of rival union Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (Raffwu) challenged the pay deal in the Fair Work Commission in a bid to restore penalty rates.
McDonald’s withdrew its application for a new pay deal and consented to the termination, instead moving all of its employees onto the fast food award in February 2020.
McDonald’s submitted that the commission should put “significant weight” on the views “expressed by only the employer and employees (either directly or through their bargaining representatives)” when approving a pay deal.
That move could help the fast-food giant and its franchises exclude views from the more militant Raffwu unless it was appointed as a bargaining representative.
In a statement, McDonalds said meals would not “be used in place of fair and equitable treatment and payment for all employees”.
“As we have moved to the fast food award, the suggestion employee meals may potentially be included as a non-monetary benefit in an [enterprise agreement] is theoretical at best and has no bearing on our current situation.”
