Australian Unions have won the right for thousands of workers employed in McDonald’s fast-food outlets to bargain together to improve their pay and conditions.
A full bench of the Fair Work Commission has agreed to let workers across multiple McDonald’s franchises bargain together for higher wages and better conditions, overruling the global fast-food giant’s strong opposition to the union bid.
In a major union win, the industrial umpire decided that the union for fast-food, retail and warehouse workers, the SDA, has the right to bargain on behalf of more than 5,100 workers employed in 18 South Australian McDonald’s franchises.
The ruling means the SDA can support low-paid workers to level up against the multinational food chain to win higher pay and better conditions.
McDonald’s is the first employer to contest a supported bargaining bid under strengthened supported bargaining laws that were introduced by the Albanese Government to get wages moving, especially among low-paid workers.
The decision forces McDonald’s to the bargaining table to negotiate its first Australian collective agreement in more than a decade.
Quotes attributable to ACTU President, Michele O’Neil:
“This has been a real David and Goliath struggle where Aussie values of a fair go have won out over multinational corporate America’s refusal to give workers the right to bargain together.
“McDonald’s and its franchises are the largest employers in the country that have been refusing to negotiate directly with their workers.
“Now they will have to, because their arguments that franchise owners don’t share common interests have failed to stack up in the Fair Work Commission.
“Anyone who has been to a McDonald’s store knows they look the same, their products are the same, right down to the pickles, sesame seed buns and the minimum wages the staff are on.
“Everything is completely standardised, yet McDonald’s expects teenagers and young workers to accept low pay rates and be denied union support to bargain across sites to be able to get a better deal.
“The Maccas ruling means more workers and their unions will be able to negotiate collective agreements that will deliver better wages and conditions.”
