Unite Union says the Holidays Act debacle is continuing in predictable fashion with the same actors ripping off workers.

Unite Union National Secretary John Crocker says: “The McDonald’s remediation portal, which went live yesterday, is misleading and ripping off workers after years of delay with Ministry oversight.”

“McDonald’s is taking an ‘unders and overs’ approach to the calculations, where their claimed overpayments are used to offset the money they owe workers. Firstly, we don’t think they have a legal basis for that claim, and secondly workers aren’t obligated to agree to that, they’re free to decline the offsets. But their portal doesn’t give workers that option” says Crocker.

“We urge all current and former McDonald’s employees to contact McDonald’s in writing and ‘withdraw your consent to deductions’ and tell them you want the full figure of underpayments.”

“We are also extremely disappointed with the Ministry[1] who has allowed this to happen.”

“On top of the dodgy ‘unders and overs’ approach, McDonald’s also has ex-franchisees who are refusing to pay up. These people have effectively sold their business, or franchise, with a known debt obligation to their workers, onto another franchisee. McDonald’s has been all over this transaction, and approved it, with complete disregard for the workers who are owed money.”

“Additionaly, the portal is misleading the affected workers by telling them ‘Our records show that you are not owed any remediation payment at the moment’”

“We think this is shocking behaviour and 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 the Ministry should be encouraging them to do so” says Crocker

[1] Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

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