Extra charges don’t always cover penalty rates
The practice among many restaurants around Australia is to charge a little extra on Mondays.
Ostensibly, that goes to cover penalty rates.
But according to court documents, the Fair Work Ombudsman has found that many restaurants charging extra have underpaid staff when they have slapped a surcharge on public holidays.
In other words, they have imposed a surcharge without paying the penalty rates.
One example is the Malaysian restaurant chain Mamak.
It was found to have underpaid several workers.
As a result, the Federal Circuit Court fined the company and three of its directors almost $300,000.
The internet archive of its website shows that in 2013, at the time of underpayments that the company had admitted, it had a $2.00 per person surcharge on public holidays.
Mamak still has a surcharge but there is no suggestion now that it’s not paying penalty rates.
Mamak did not respond when questioned about it by the ABC.
Stefan Russell Uren from the union United Voice said the practice was fairly widespread.
He said there were many more examples than what was revealed in court documents.
He said there was a symptom of "systemic" underpayment in the broader hospitality industry.
"More often than not [restaurants] certainly put in the additional charge, but they certainly don't always pass it on to the workers," Uren told the ABC.
"It's common to see underpayments of Sunday penalty rates, usually they're paid at a flat rate or not at all, and it's equally common to see the surcharge."
He said it was also unfair on customers who had assumed the surcharge would see staff being paid fairly.
When customers pay the surcharge, more often than not they're happy to, because they understand that it costs more to operate on Sundays - they get it," he said.
“To discover that the business is just keeping that money as extra profit would be pretty galling.
"I would be furious to know that I'd been effectively conned in that way."
by Leon Gettler, June 12th 2017
