Unite union supports the Labour Inspectorate’s enforcement action that has seen Burger King (Antares Restaurants) banned from getting new visas for migrant workers for a year.
The reason for then ban is for paying a salaried manager (and Unite union member) less than the minimum wage:
“This is a large high profile corporation and shows that this is not just a problem for small restaurants and fruit pickers – it goes right across most sectors and company sizes” said National Secretary Gerard Hehir.
(Burger King has 83 Restaurants and employees over 2,600 staff. It first opened in New Zealand in 1993 and is currently owned by one of the largest private equity firms in the world – New York based Blackstone Group. Group CEO Steve Schwarzman was paid US$786 million in 2017).
“Migrant workers are the most vulnerable to exploitation because their visa conditions often tie them to one employer. They fear speaking out because if they lose their job, they lose their ability to work in New Zealand. Employers who steal from their employees need to be sent a very clear message. Banning them from employing vulnerable migrant workers is a good start. If an employer is not able to guarantee the most basic minimum conditions allowed by law, they should not be able to hire vulnerable workers.”
Unite is, however, concerned that some existing BK workers will not be able to renew their visas in the next 12 months because of the ban. Unite will be working closely with Immigration New Zealand and other employers they have relationships with to find alternative employment.
“We understand the regulations that govern these bans are being reviewed this year and we will be asking the government to allow migrant workers caught by such bans to have open visas granted to help them get new employment quickly. These types of workers should not suffer exploitation and then be punished for it along with the employer who exploited them.”
“The key factors in this case were the low level of salary, just above the minimum wage, and a failure to accurately record and pay for all hours worked. There are hundreds of thousands of workers at risk of this. Minimum wage laws can easily be broken where salaried or waged workers on low rates do not have accurate records of actual hours worked”
A salaried worker on $17 an hour ($35,360 pa) only has to work 90 minutes extra a week to end up being paid less than the minimum wage of $16.50 an hour. A salaried worker on over $41,000 pa would be paid less than the minimum wage if they worked just one extra 8 hour shift.
“Even missing paid breaks all week is enough to do it, or being forced to attend 15 minute unpaid meetings each day, or not being paid for cashing up tills at the end of the day. We have seen cases of all of these from large new Zealand companies recently. Salaried staff in particular are often expected to turn up earlier and finish later than their agreed work hours.”
“Employers need to record actual hours of work for all employees. It isn’t just migrant workers and employers – good old kiwi businesses will also be doing it to their kiwi workers.”
“Its time to call it what it is: Wage Theft. It is a huge problem in New Zealand and around the world. In the US it is estimated that wage theft outstrips robbery, car theft, burglary and larceny combined.”
“Our organisers regularly attend disciplinary meetings where workers are sacked and even charged by police with theft for eating a few chips or taking an extra cup of soft drink, but we are yet to see an employer lose their business or be charged, even when they the steal thousands of dollars from their employees wages. Where’s the justice in that?”
“We know workers in New Zealand are owed billions in holiday pay but direct wage theft almost certainly dwarfs this over the same period.”
The good news for Burger King workers is that Unite’s newly settled agreements for both waged and salaried members at Burger King ensure both significant pay-rises and checks to make sure extra work is recorded and paid.
“We are now very confident that that Burger King will work with us to get the systems in place quickly to make sure all work is paid in full”.
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6 Comments
This issue also highlights how the national government allowed for far too many immigrants to come here and take up low paying jobs that really should be filled by NZers. Is working at burger king as a Manager or any other position a job that really cant be filled by a kiwi or just more lies and broken promises from a government that once again is responsible for the growing inequalities we can see on our country and the great divide between the have and the have nots.
Burger King’s business confidence must be at an all time low!
Having an immigrant’s visa tied to an employer sound like legalized slavery to me.
Fast food have only social grace, they tend to have good training for workers who may not have many other employment opportunities… now even that has gone, because the foreign firms bring in their own migrant workers who are probably paying them for the job and now shitting on all the Kiwi students/part timers/elderly/poorly qualified etc that their roles could be filling… same as petrol stations, cafes, retail, hospitality etc.
So fast food gets to screw over the poor with bad food affecting their health, adding in more costs to the government with obesity as well as their reliance on bringing in migrant labour means more low waged people to subsidise and more low cost accomodation to find for all these $20 p/h and less people flooding into NZ.
NZ taxpayers are subsidising the health, accomodation, welfare of migrants while also subsidising their wages in real terms. No wonder the CEO can afford $786 million US salary.
Once the migrants get their job and do a few years, they get residency and can just leave and go on the dole or their health suffers and they are too ill to work. Great then these employers just bring in more people, the Ponzi continues… Changing the visa so people can leave won’t change how easy it is now for these firms to screw over NZ workers. Used to be called scab labour but now the unions are ok with it?
The countries that bring in slave and low wage labour always have major social issues later, like Fiji, USA, former Yugoslavia etc … it does not work at all, because it adds more low wage people into a country (and most normal countries want high education and skills not less) while lowering wages and driving up costs.
Beneficiaries are banks and private equity firms that rely on massive consumerism and the governments paying most of the negative costs of their business like obesity and low wage subsidies.
It is not the migrants fault apart from the scams, it it our pathetic immigration policy, pandering to a failed globalisation and Ponzi employment under neoliberalism.
How’s about banning all migrant workers until we hit 100% employment.
The existence of cheap imported labour is a stick which is beating our wages down.
This issue also highlights how the national government allowed for far too many immigrants to come here and take up low paying jobs that really should be filled by NZers. Is working at burger king as a Manager or any other position a job that really cant be filled by a kiwi or just more lies and broken promises from a government that once again is responsible for the growing inequalities we can see on our country and the great divide between the have and the have nots.
Burger King’s business confidence must be at an all time low!
Having an immigrant’s visa tied to an employer sound like legalized slavery to me.
Fast food have only social grace, they tend to have good training for workers who may not have many other employment opportunities… now even that has gone, because the foreign firms bring in their own migrant workers who are probably paying them for the job and now shitting on all the Kiwi students/part timers/elderly/poorly qualified etc that their roles could be filling… same as petrol stations, cafes, retail, hospitality etc.
So fast food gets to screw over the poor with bad food affecting their health, adding in more costs to the government with obesity as well as their reliance on bringing in migrant labour means more low waged people to subsidise and more low cost accomodation to find for all these $20 p/h and less people flooding into NZ.
NZ taxpayers are subsidising the health, accomodation, welfare of migrants while also subsidising their wages in real terms. No wonder the CEO can afford $786 million US salary.
Once the migrants get their job and do a few years, they get residency and can just leave and go on the dole or their health suffers and they are too ill to work. Great then these employers just bring in more people, the Ponzi continues… Changing the visa so people can leave won’t change how easy it is now for these firms to screw over NZ workers. Used to be called scab labour but now the unions are ok with it?
The countries that bring in slave and low wage labour always have major social issues later, like Fiji, USA, former Yugoslavia etc … it does not work at all, because it adds more low wage people into a country (and most normal countries want high education and skills not less) while lowering wages and driving up costs.
Beneficiaries are banks and private equity firms that rely on massive consumerism and the governments paying most of the negative costs of their business like obesity and low wage subsidies.
It is not the migrants fault apart from the scams, it it our pathetic immigration policy, pandering to a failed globalisation and Ponzi employment under neoliberalism.
How’s about banning all migrant workers until we hit 100% employment.
The existence of cheap imported labour is a stick which is beating our wages down.