Photo: JOAN CROS / NurPhoto via AFP
McDonald's employees are running into trouble when attempting to receive money owed to them, Unite Union says.
The fast food giant has started paying out holiday pay owed to tens of thousands of staff almost five years since it agreed to.
In November 2019, Unite Union announced it had reached a deal with McDonald's to go back 10 years to reimburse employees over a payroll botch-up.
McDonald's was one of hundreds of companies caught up by payroll systems incorrectly calculating holiday pay.
On its website this week, the company said it had been given approval by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to begin remediation.
It said current and former staff who worked during the remediation period between 2009 and 2019 should go to an online portal to check their payment.
At the time of the union deal, Unite said as many as 60,000 McDonald's workers and millions of dollars would be involved in the process.
That number is now thought to be around 80,000 - but Unite Union national secretary John Crocker told Midday Report McDonald's had said only about half that number would actually get any money.
Crocker said he was disappointed with that way McDonald's was handling the situation.
"They're taking an unders and overs approach which is where they've recalculated things and if they think they've overpaid you in some circumstance, then they might deduct that from what they actually owe you from your underpayment."
For example, he had heard from either current or former employees who had received a message from McDonald's saying they were owed money, but they would only get a portion of it because it had found it overpaid in the past.
Because of this, Crocker said some people were not actually getting what they were entitled to.
In a statement, Crocker said: "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."
Another issue being noticed was when a McDonald's franchise no longer existed, those employees were not getting any money that they could be entitled to.
"It's pretty shocking that these former franchisees are allowed to behave this way."
Crocker said this is where McDonald's and the ministry should be stepping in to help.
"We are also extremely disappointed with the ministry who has allowed this to happen."
In a statement, McDonald's said its offsetting approach was designed and agreed to with MBIE.
"Our approach is compliant and is consistent with other Holidays Act remediations, and in line with the Wages Protection Act. The remediation portal has been designed to allow individuals to transparently review offsetting, and provide the choice to offset or not."
A spokesperson said in a handful of cases, it was not possible to get information from franchisees 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.
"McDonald's has worked in good faith to get as many former franchisees who operated during the remediation period to participate. The businesses involved in the remediation are listed on the portal."
McDonald's said any individual who thought they were owed money but it was not showing on the portal should contact MBIE.
