KEY POINTS:
In my day job as a union boss, I come across some creeps. I'm usually reluctant to name and shame bad employers, but today I'm making an exception.
I know that multinationals are notoriously exploitative, wherever they are in the world. But even a hardened operator like me continues to be shocked at some of the behaviour that is occasionally exposed.
A McDonald's franchisee was found to have constructively dismissed a then 17-year-old employee because she had the cheek to join a union.
McDonald's was found to have cut her hours and to have been unfair and unreasonable. The young woman was awarded $15,000, which is one of the highest settlements ever.
After a meeting this week between the local franchisee and the McDonald's New Zealand chief executive, McDonald's has decided to take the case to the Employment Court. I believe it has no legal grounds to do so.
This young woman was victimised and the judgment was sound. But unlike other courts, the legal employment processes that workers are required to seek justice are a joke.
You see, bosses don't need a reason to challenge any rulings made by the Employment Authority. If they lose at one level, they can take the matter all the way to the Employment Court. That means the whole case starts all over again as if it had never been heard before.
Instead of paying up, apologising to the woman and learning from their behaviour, McDonald's seem intent on burying her in legal costs and time. This woman has since moved to Australia and she is now required - at her own expense - to take time off work and fly back to New Zealand.
I understand McDonald's wants to settle "out of court" and claims that there was wrong on both sides. There was no such thing. The Employment Authority's ruling was clear that the wrongdoing was entirely McDonald's.
McDonald's has a well-earned reputation of keeping tight control over its workers. When the Unite union first began a recruitment drive it fought hard to stop it. Initially, there was blatant refusal to let us have access to workers.
When that didn't work, it took anyone who joined into the managers' offices and pressured them into resigning. But McDonald's claimed that it was only giving the employee the other side of the story.
Despite this, hundreds of McDonald's employees joined Unite. Then McDonald's just refused to process membership authorisations. Eventually, we were able to negotiate a union contract with McDonald's.
Some sort of truce has been achieved, although the intimidation of some union members continues. Unluckily for them, one teenager stood up and pushed back.
Despite resoundingly losing the case, McDonald's says there are two sides to the story. It actually got the chance to put its side of the story and the Employment Authority didn't accept it.
Here's how the saga unfolded. A year ago the woman joined the union with many of her workmates. When McDonald's was informed, a notice was put on the wall from a manager asking all those who had joined to come and see him "about resigning from the union".
They were told that if they didn't resign their union membership they wouldn't get a pay increase or promotions. All of them resigned, apart from this sole worker.
When the rosters came out the next week her four-day week had been cut to two. The following week she was not rostered to work at all. Her workmates who had resigned kept their normal hours. Even when this worker turned up for her reduced shift she was sent home. When our union contacted McDonald's, it denied the notice but the woman had taken a photograph.
When the McDonald's franchisees were confronted with that evidence they claimed they knew nothing about it as they were out of the country at the time, but got their travel dates wrong. It was proved they were there and that the notice came from their computer.
At this point the distressed woman asked her supervisor if she could take a minute to get a glass of water and take a Panadol. When the manager saw her he smacked the drink out of her hand and told her to get back to work. She then resigned. When confronted about this incident, McDonald's denied it had happened. Witnesses came forward, offering several different versions.
The video of the incident was seen by McDonald's managers and the franchisees but the tape was wiped days before the authority hearing, apparently because they didn't believe it was important.
I could go on but you get the picture. The authority had no hesitation in awarding the young woman full costs and maximum compensation. McDonald's claims it was an isolated case. I can point to other similar incidents. It's a corporate culture that McDonald's needs to own up to, and fix.
Disclosure: I am the head of Unite but was not actively involved in this case.
