Staff at a major hospitality group allege they were terminated and then rehired by a different entity that doesn’t have to pay penalty rates.
Casual staff claim they were forced into signing a contract with a new employer just days before the Australia Day January 26 public holiday where penalty rates would have applied, The Courier Mailand the AFRboth independently reported.
Mantle Group Hospitality, which oversees restaurants including the Pig ‘n’ Whistle chain in Brisbane, Squire’s Landing in Sydney and Babylon Rooftop in both states, to name a few, is under fire for the controversial move right before a major public holiday.
Around 700 people are believed to have been impacted.
A Mantle Group spokesperson insisted no workers had been fired, and instead said permanent staff had been “asked to consent to a reassignment of their employment”.
As for casual employees, the spokesperson said the nature of their employment meant their job was over at the end of each shift, and they had been offered a contract with a new entity.
The spokesperson rejected claims that a clause would be abused to get out of paying the 225 per cent loading for staff working a public holiday period.
It comes less than two weeks after a law firm secured a victory against Mantle Group at the Fair Work Commission for underpaying staff, including not paying penalty rates to workers, a decision which Mantle Group plans to appeal.
Mantle Group Hospitality staff used to be paid according to an enterprise agreement they had with Hot Wok Pty Ltd however on Monday, according to both publications, staff were informed work at this employer would cease.
They were then given the option to sign on to a new employer called KGS Staff Pty Ltd.
This new entity has an enterprise agreement that has not been updated since 2019 and so has not risen with inflation.
A Mantle Group Hospitality spokesperson said under the new agreement, casual employees will be paid a 225 per cent loading on the award base rate for public holidays such as Australia Day.
However, a clause in the KGS staff contract makes it easy to get out of paying this, staff have claimed, as workers must agree to swap out public holidays for a day with normal pay.
The Courier Mail said the offer of employment staff received on Monday stated: “The employee agrees that they will swap all designated public holidays to a date which may be designated by KGS from time to time. If the employee wishes to withdraw from this arrangement, they must notify KGS in writing.”
Mantle Group assured news.com.au that this clause is not a way for penalty rates to remain unpaid.
“KGS Staff Pty Ltd employees have been communicated with via correspondence and venue briefings that loading will apply to weekends and staff will not be required to swap public holidays to another date designated by KGS Staff Pty Ltd,” they wrote, despite the phrasing in the employment offer.
Workers also reportedly cannot make any negative comments about their employer and also signed a confidentiality clause that stops them from discussing their pay with anyone else.
Are you one of the workers impacted? Get in touch | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au
The United Workers’ Union challenged Hot Wok Pty Ltd for the original enterprise agreement which held back penalty rates and earlier this month, on January 12, a full bench at the Fair Work Commission upheld that workers had been underpaid.
They ordered the hospitality group to back pay staff for 18 months of work.
Mantle Group confirmed their entity, Hot Wok, would be appealing the case at the highest level, in the Federal Court, after other appeals with the Fair Work Commission were not accepted.
“Hot Wok will be applying to the Federal Court to have all of the decisions of the FWC quashed because of bias,” they said.
“Hot Wok is confident that it will be successful in having these unfair and biased comments overturned.”
Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Giri Sivaraman, who was part of the team that took Mantle Group to the Fair Work Commission, told The Courier Mail he was “gutted” for the 700-odd workers and said the changes to employment came “just in time for Australia Day”.