Hundreds of Mantle Group Hospitality workers forced onto agreement with no guarantee of penalty rates

Hospitality giant Mantle Group, lashed over its refusal to pay penalty rates, has forced its 700-odd casual workforce onto a new agreement that still does not guarantee the extra pay.

A Queensland hospitality giant previously lashed by Fairwork over its refusal to pay penalty rates has forced their 700-odd casual workforce onto a new agreement that still does not guarantee the extra pay.

Less than two weeks after the Fair Work Commission found Mantle Group Hospitality – which runs venues like Pig ‘n’ Whistle, South Bank’s The Charming Squire and Jimmy’s on the Mall in Queen Street – “systematically ripped off” its workers by not paying penalty rates the hospitality giant is again under fire.

New employment documents, seen by The Courier-Mail and given to employees on January 23, state that employment offered under the old agreement “Hot Wok Food Makers Pty Ltd” would end and workers would be offered new employment by KGS Staff Pty Ltd.

The offer of employment states; “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”.

The agreement does not include a provision for workers to be paid penalty rates at weekends but a Mantle Group Hospitality spokeswoman said that employees were paid a 25 per cent above the award wage.

Mantle Hospitality Group venue Jimmy’s On The Mall in Brisbane CBD. Picture: David Clark

Workers were also asked to agree to not “disparage KGS or any of its directors” by making any negative comments either verbally or written, such as on social media.

A Mantle Group Hospitality spokeswoman said they were offering the 225 per cent loading for casuals, despite what the offer of employment states.

“KGS Staff Pty Ltd casual employees will be paid a 225% loading on the award base rate for public holidays such as Australia Day. Permanent staff can choose to take a day in lieu as allowed by the EBA and Award and is common industry practice,” she said.

The spokeswoman said they weren’t concerned the new agreement would be deemed unfair by the Fair Work Commission.

Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Giri Sivaraman, who represented employees on behalf of the United Workers Union during the FWC hearing, said he was “gutted” for the workers.

“Once we crushed the Hot Wok EBA and they were forced to pay penalty rates under the award, it seems like they had another EBA lined up, which again, allows them at the very minimum on weekends to avoid paying penalties to casuals and potentially on public holidays as well just in time for Australia Day,” he said.

“I honestly thought that a whole bunch of young workers would be getting penalty rates for the first time … and now it looks like they’re not.

“And we worked so hard for the Union and some brave young workers stood up to make this happen and it looks like all that good work has been kind of extinguished in one swift move by the Mantle Group.”

Pig’n’Whistle is one of Mantle Hospitality Group’s most popular brands. Picture: David Clark

A family member of one of the workers affected, who asked to remain anonymous, said their loved one was told if they didn’t sign the new document but then turned up for their next shift they were deemed to have automatically accepted this new workplace agreement.

“They were left virtually no time to get any advice as to whether they should sign this or not,” the family member said.

Mantle Group Hospitality, owned by pub baron Godfrey Mantle, was caught last year underpaying its staff under a two-decade old “zombie” services agreement which Commissioner Jennifer Hunt ordered to be terminated from June 9, 2022.

But on January 11, the FWC found Mantle Group continued avoiding paying penalty rates by moving workers onto yet another unfair agreement designed to encourage workers to “opt out” of penalty rates.

It paved the way for significant back pay for hundreds of workers estimated to have collectively lost more than $200,000 over the past two years.

In its January 11 written decision the FWC said it was considering referring Mantle Group’s human resources chief Darren Latham to the Australian Federal Police for potentially giving false or misleading information about how employees came to be on the contracts.

The Commission stated that Mr Latham’s declaration was “false or misleading in a number of respects, including as to the purported information sessions, the voting process and the number of employees covered by the agreement.”