In the last couple of weeks, a class action underpayment suit
has been filed in the Federal Court against
Domino's Pizza. It alleges that Domino's engaged in
misleading and deceptive conduct when it advised many of its
franchisee store owners to pay employees in line with enterprise
agreements that did not cover either the franchisee business or its
employees. It is alleged this has led to many employees being
underpaid casual loading; penalty rates for public holidays,
weekends and evenings; and other allowances, loadings and
entitlements they should have received under the Fast Food Industry
Award.
It is unclear whether advice to follow the (wrong) enterprise
agreement was a misunderstanding of the scope of the enterprise
agreement (easy enough to do), or a deliberate ploy to cut
costs.
