McDonald’s accused of exploiting young workers

MCDONALD’S, the country’s largest youth employer, has been accused of a ripping off Aussie workers through a sneaky scheme.

MCDONALD’S has been accused of exploiting underage workers paid as little as $8.43 an hour by gradually reducing their shifts as they get older under a practice dubbed “learn and churn”.

The ABC’s 7.30 spoke to employees who reported getting fewer shifts as they got older before eventually leaving the company. One manager told the program getting rid of older workers was an “unspoken rule”.

Nearly two-thirds of the fast-food giant’s 103,136 workers are aged between 14 and 18, the youngest of whom can be paid just 50 per cent of the minimum wage under Australian law.

That increases by 10 per cent each birthday until the age of 21.

“A lot of the time they talked about how they were trying to get rid of certain people for this reason or that reason — a big one was when people were getting too old,” Brisbane store manager Max Beech told the program.

The term “learn and churn” was first used by a McDonald’s franchisee giving evidence for the Fair Work Commission’s most recent Annual Wage Review.

McDonald’s Australia chief executive Andrew Gregory denied it was an official policy, telling the program it was a phrase he “hadn’t heard until we saw it come up in the testimony”.

“We feel it’s bad business practice on our behalf if that’s happening,” he said.

Retail and Fast Food Workers Union secretary Josh Cullinan told 7.30 the system was “exploitative”.

“They use casual employment and junior rates to basically cycle workers off under the apprehension that those workers are going to get more hours as they get more skills in the workplace,” he said. “That’s not what happens.”

McDonald’s, which has annual revenue north of $5 billion, often talks up its role as the country’s largest youth employer. Last year, it rolled out a filter for picture messaging app Snapchat allowing users to submit video job applications.

In a statement, a McDonald’s spokeswoman said claims of a “systematic process” of phasing out older workers were “simply untrue”.

“We need people of all ages to meet our staffing needs, and in fact, half of our restaurant employees are over 18,” she said.

“These people work more than 50 per cent of the hours in our restaurant and we simply couldn’t run our restaurants without them. Each year, we continue to employ thousands of new employees 18 years and above to meet this business need.”

The spokeswoman said employees would “always be given the opportunity to grow at McDonald’s”.

“As one of the country’s largest employers of the young people, we take great pride in giving many young Australians opportunities that build their skills and give them the foundations for a great career – whether that’s with us, or elsewhere,” she said.

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