McDonald’s dim on staff who worked for closed franchises
Staff who worked for McDonald’s franchises that are now closed may not see a cent of the money owed to them after waiting years for a payout for missed holiday pay.
Hundreds of people who worked for it between November 1, 2009, and December 6, 2020, have taken to social media after finding on the company’s online payroll remediation portal they are owned money – some thousands of dollars.
The fast-food chain got the green light from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to begin remediation for annual leave and holiday pay owed to staff after a 2016 compliance audit regarding the Holidays Act.
But McDonald’s Kaiapoi staff who worked under former franchise owners Patrick and Ann Cornish from 2009 to May 2018 say the portal shows they are not owed anything.
The couple closed the company they used to run their restaurant, MPA Investments Ltd, in 2019 after selling the franchise to its current owner in 2018.
McDonald’s employee website said if a franchise had closed its business, no staff working there would receive a payout.
Former McDonald’s Kaiapoi manager Larissa Trainor said it was “frustrating”.
“We trusted them [the Cornishes], and they didn’t do what they were supposed to be doing. It’s not fair. We earned it.”
She worked for both owners from 2007 to 2022, and said under the current owner she was owed $34 through the remediation.
Trainor believed the figure was low because she became a store manager with a salary a few months after the franchise changed ownership, but under Cornish she was paid hourly.
She and her husband, who had also worked there, had potentially lost thousands of dollars, she said.
McDonald’s spokesperson Simon Kenny said the company had worked “in good faith” to get as many former franchisees to participate. “In a handful of cases it was not possible to get the information required to do calculations for some current or former employees. This was because their ex-employer wound up their company and does not have an enforceable undertaking, or does have an enforceable undertaking but opted out of the McDonald’s remediation process.”
Trainor had gathered more than 80 signatures from current and former Kaiapoi staff to send a complaint to MBIE. They hoped pressure would be placed on McDonald’s New Zealand to force payouts.
“It’s really gutting that someone could just choose to not take responsibility for those of us who worked there in that time.”
Former Kaiapoi staff member Darcie George said someone should be liable. “It was McDonald’s system that had the issues.”
Unite Union estimated McDonald’s owed $45 million to $90m to as many as 60,000 staff. The union’s national secretary, John Crocker, said: “McDonald’s should be stepping up for each franchisee that they have allowed to walk away from the holiday pay they owe their workers and ... [MBIE] should be encouraging them to do so.”
MBIE’s Jeanie Borsboom said some franchisees remained uncompliant.
The Cornishes were approached for comment.