One workers union out of Australia that represents over 250,000 workers is officially slamming McDonald’s with a suit, claiming that they were refused their mandated paid rest breaks.
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) has been carrying out an investigation over the past two years and is now targeting the fast food titan and over 323 of its operators by making the claim that well over 1,000 of the companies franchises actively ignored in a “systemic and deliberate” way the mandates 10-minute break for working four or more hours in a row. The union is asking for damages in excess of $250 million.
“I felt that our health and safety at work was being ignored,” explained a former shift supervisor for McDonald’s. “When a few workers spoke up about this, they were essentially told by management, ‘It is what it is.’”
The new lawsuit also alleges that the franchises were “aided and abetted” by the parent company itself.
7NEWS.com.au was told directly by McDonald’s Australia that is plans to counter the new suit.
Despite a declaration from SDA secretary Gerard Dwyer, saying, “The SDA has sought to fix this issue with McDonald’s and they’ve refused to resolve it, let alone admit any wrongdoing,” one spokesman for McDonald’s fired back:
“Those arrangements have been known to the SDA for many years. The manner of taking breaks has not been challenged or raised by the SDA as a matter of concern throughout successive enterprise bargaining processes for new industrial agreements. We value our employees highly and the great contribution they make to the success of the business.”
Despite the rampant worldwide inflation crisis, McDonald’s has remained steadfast. Its global comps moving at 9.7% throughout the second quarter of 2022, which marks its overall sixth consecutive quarter of growth in comps, as stated by Nasdaq.com, adding, “In the past year, shares of McDonald’s have gained 9.6% against the industry’s fall of 13.2%.”
This past November, McDonald’s started to market test its new meat-free McPlant burgers across eight different restaurants throughout the United States. Back near the middle of February, it ramped up to test at well over 600 more locations.
As stated by analysts in the industry, consumers were just not at all interested in a meat-free substitute burger. Peter Saleh, an analyst for BTIG, stated that franchisees told him that MCPlant sales failed to meet any sort of expectation. He has been echoed by Ken Goldman, an analyst for JP Morgan, as reported by CNBC.
