RESTAURANT Brands which owns the KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr and Starbucks chains has committed to end zero-hour contracts by July this year in a new collective agreement negotiated with New Zealand’s Unite Union.
Unite has 2,000 members at the chain and is recommending the new terms to members in a vote to be held over the next week or so.
The Unite bargaining team was unanimous in its support for the proposal which promises staff at least 80% of the average hours will be guaranteed using a three-month rolling average of hours worked up to a maximum of 32 hours a week.
‘This is a gigantic step forward for workers in the fast food industry,’ says Unite National Director Mike Treen.
Unfortunately, McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s are still refusing to move meaningfully on the issue.
Union members at all three chains have now voted in support of an industrial and public campaign to try and convince these companies that they have to end zero-hour contracts also.
Unite is appealing for members of the public to help them in this campaign.
‘It is time for New Zealanders to tell these profitable multi-national chains that they need to stop taking advantage of their often young and vulnerable workers and put an end to a labour practice that the people of New Zealand have made clear they find unacceptable.
‘We are asking people to go to our website at www.unite.org.nz and sign a letter that will be forwarded to the three holdouts. They may think they can ignore their own workers but they won’t be able to ignore tens of thousands of fair-minded Kiwis who need to tell them to end zero-hour contracts now. If Restaurant Brands can do it so can McDonald’s, BK and Wendy’s.’
Unite members will also be joining the international day of action by fast-food workers on April 15 to support an end to the super-exploitation of these vulnerable workers.
In the US, the cry is $15 and a union. In New Zealand, we are demanding ‘End Zero-Hour Contracts Now’.
Negotiations between Unite and all the fast-food companies have reached a critical stage. The fight for a better deal has begun at Wendy’s with action at a number of stores across the country.
Votes to authorise strike action are being held at McDonald’s and Burger King. Negotiations are continuing more productively with Restaurant Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr and Starbucks).
Unite was told by workers that 2015 was the year to end zero-hour contracts. That message was relayed to the companies at the end of negotiations two years ago … However, only Restaurant Brands has made even a modest effort to engage meaningfully on the issue. The other companies appear to be just stringing Unite along until the collective agreements expired on March 31.
McDonald’s has also told non-union staff earning more than the minimum wage that they will be getting the same 50 cent increase as the minimum wage staff.
Union members earning above the minimum wage are being told that they will not be getting a pay increase until the agreement is settled and the company don’t intend to back pay them to April 1. They obviously hope that union members will quit the union in order to get the pay rise.
Maybe these companies are also hoping that they may be able to to use the new law that allows companies to walk away from bargaining in some circumstances.
The importance of getting rid of zero-hour contracts was underscored by a proposal from McDonald’s during bargaining that in return for a pathetic offer to give a small percentage of their staff some secure hours after two years service they wanted the right to take secure hours way again for ‘No-shows’, that is, the situation when staff don’t turn up for a rostered shift. What that did is confirm that these companies view the roster as a tool to discipline and punish workers without a proper process.
Unite continues to hear horror stories of the roster being used to get rid of staff. Workers just get rostered down to such a low level they can’t continue working and have to quit.
The union has had workers lose a regular shift if they call in sick one week. There are workers in some stores with open availability being rostered 10 hours a week while others with the same availability are getting 60 hours.
The union knows of workers who complain about missing their breaks losing shifts the following week. There are managers favouring their mates and there seem to be no consequences for them when the favouritism is challenged. Managers seem to be a law unto themselves.
Lack of guaranteed hours also makes it very difficult to manage the interface with WINZ for those families eligible for Working For families or other forms of social support payments.
None of the protections that the union has had put in the collective agreements over the last decade to improve security of hours has proved effective.
That is why we are determined that guaranteed hours are the only solution.
We are willing to be flexible. We accept that the hours that can be guaranteed will have a relationship to availability. We accept that there will be peaks and troughs in business during a year. We accept that we can’t necessarily have a gold plate agreement from day one. But we also know that all staff need some guaranteed hours and these must be able to be built up over time.
The other main claims in these negotiations have to do with the right of the union to simply be able to exist in these workplaces as a legitimate, respected part of the life of a fast-food company. These companies still seem to see the union as some alien presence.
Unite says: ‘We want workers to be able to choose to join the union freely when they are employed. We want to be able to visit sites and see all staff without managerial interference. We need to be able to go ‘back of house’ for health and safety inspections. We need to be able to put up information on our own noticeboard without company interference. None of these things are guaranteed at most companies.
‘Most of these are our legal rights … yet the companies still routinely refuse to fulfil their side of the agreements which involve sending all staff out to see us when we visit in a timely manner. We are determined that these protocols around access and union rights are made more equal this year …
‘To win the campaign to end zero hours in New Zealand once and for all will require a massive campaign involving industrial action by members as well as solidarity action by their supporters across the country.
‘It helps that we are part of worldwide movement for social justice but we all have to step up to bring about meaningful change for tens of thousands of workers.
‘Because they are very low paid we can’t ask our members to take strike action for long periods of time. We try to take action for short periods during a peak business times and in the most public spots possible to gather broader support.
‘The lack of guaranteed hours means that often workers have to face retaliation for taking action. Many workers in the industry are migrants on company specific visas and fear possible retaliation. But these companies also have an Achilles heel – their brand, which they value above all else.
‘We have made it clear to McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s that their brands will forever be associated with exploiting young and vulnerable workers on zero-hour contracts unless they move now to bring them to an end and sign new collective agreements with guaranteed hours and full union rights with Unite Union.
‘We need your support to make that ‘warning’ a reality.’
