There are more than 750,000 hospitality workers in Australia, and recent data suggests many of them may be underpaid.
A recent FairWork investigation found 81 per cent of restaurants on Melbourne’s Richmond Street, and over half of those on Sydney’s Glebe Point Road underpaid their workers. A 2015 Ombudsman report found half of all hospitality businesses didn’t pay legal rates.
The industry’s lobby group - the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association (R & CA) - now concedes the problem might be at epidemic levels.
It wants workplace relations legislation simplified so that cases of ‘accidental’ oversight are corrected. R & CA’s CEO, Juliana Payne says they will “continue to work with the Fair Work Ombudsman to identify and eliminate practices relating to deliberate underpayments of wages, superannuation and other entitlements in the hospitality industry.”
Underpayment has become national conversation after several high-profile cases were exposed.
Such as last year when Masterchef judge George Calombaris’ restaurant group, MADE Establishment, was forced to pay back 162 employees $2.6 million dollars, after they accused the group of paying them lower than the award rate.
When paid correctly casual hospitality workers can earn between $23 to $30 per hour and up to $42 per hour on Sunday. Factoring in high rents, run costs, off-peak periods and the fact that some 80% of competitors are under-paying staff, labour costs at award wages can be difficult to afford.
James Lea, a hospitality worker in Melbourne, thinks penalties aren’t big enough which allows bigger companies to just hedge their bets.
Penalties for underpaying workers basically amounts to money: re-paying your workers what they’re owed, and/or potentially paying a fine on top of that.
Australia has a foodie culture - we like quality meals, but we also want those quality meals to come with an affordable price tag.
But perhaps it’s worth asking... what is the real price?
