Another example of a McDonald’s worker shortpaid annual leave

McDonald’s worker Shontelle Kingston got a week’s annual leave paid out at 30 hours last week when it should have been 45.65 hours.

Shontelle had to take time off because of illness. She did not know if she had any enough sick leave available so asked to cash up a week’s annual leave which is her right under the law.

McDonald’s calculates and allocates annual leave in hours rather than days or weeks which makes it very difficult to comply with the law, says Unite Union National Director Mike Treen.

They should have paid her at the higher of her “ordinary weekly pay” or her average weekly pay. If a worker’s hours fluctuate significantly then the ordinary weekly pay should be calculated as an average of the last fours weeks pay.

We do not know how the company arrived at the 30-hour figure but it is certainly less than the 45.65 she averaged in the previous four weeks.

Thankfully, McDonald’s has acknowledged that their payroll system may not be compliant with the law and have appointed an external auditor to check.

But this case shows the importance of the government leading a process to ensure all employers and payroll providers are compliant with the law.  This may take some time so it is important that the workers are not disadvantaged by the delay.

Unite Union supports the demand for the government to stop the clock on the six-year statute of limitations that exists for payroll theft.

The government’s own officials estimate that workers could be losing a million dollars a day. This is highway robbery and should be stopped,