another company ripping off workers?

[davidc4430]

Grill'd burger chain accused of keeping young workers in underpaid roles through traineeships

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-07/grilld-burger-chain-accused-of-using-traineeships-to-underpay...

seems to be a weekly thing finding companies underpaying staff

i bet the CEO isnt being underpaid

[hannahmallory]

Interestng.  

"I love the work and I love who I work with. I don't want to leave my job, I'd rather just get paid fairly for it and be able to survive on the wage that I get."

Even without the scheme the staff are being underpad since Morrison's government got rid of penalty rates.  Looking after the high end and spitting on the low.

[martinw-48]

No David.
You have it all wrong.
If the poor feel comfortable they won't aspire to be rich.
Scott is doing the nicest thing to the poor.
They are lazy and uninspired to become rorters and tax evaders. For they are noble ways to steal.
If you defraud Centrelink you are vile and evil and must even be punished if you haven't defrauded Centrelink but if you steal the tax payers money directly at the source you are holy and chaste.
I soldier of the Lord that can do no evil

[chameleon54]

Another company ripping off workers ?

I,m glad you put the question mark at the end dave.

Cant speak about the particular company in the feature, but one of my kids had issues at school and left early. They already had a part time job with a similar high profile burger chain. The chain offered the child the same traineeship ( certificate 3 in retail ) the featured kids are doing at similar wages. ( around $14.50 per hour ).

As part of the traineeship the school leaver was given full time employment for the 12 months the course took. Something that is uncommon for kids in these industries. They also received proper training and gained accreditation. On completing the course, the company offered them a duty managers position with career path to store manager, regional manager etc.

Our child moved quickly onto other, higher calibre employment within the hospitality industry where their experience and qualifications where recognised. On leaving the burger joint, our child was successful in gaining a more senior position with some responsibility and quite high pay rate for age in a position that was the envy of their mates who where just leaving school and trying to enter the job market.

Its very easy to knock these sorts of schemes, but kids straight out of school need further experience and training before they are ready to take on more responsible, higher paying positions. This collaboration between industry and Government is a great way to give them that training, similar to an apprenticeship. Having experienced the positive benefits first hand with my child, I would recommend the programme to others.

[springyzone]

I found chameleon's post interesting as that sounds like a traineeship done right.

What needs to happen to prevent glitches or misuse of the concept is that a traineeship should need to be completed within a set time range eg 1-2 years.

It should not drag on forever.

But I think it is perfectly fair enough that young workers on traineeships are paid less. The truth is that they don't have the experience or the skills, nor do they necessarily carry the responsibility that someone like a manager might have.

This is the same sort of thing that happens in every industry, to some extent. For instance in teaching, you'll see an awful lot of first and second year teachers employed, often ahead of more qualified & experienced people. I have seen this happen to a friend and it can be quite humiliating when someone who has been at a school for years, often given the more 'difficult' kids in her class because she is so capable, to go to interview & miss out to a graduate with *no* experience. in fact one where she had to step in and take some children out of a class as the graduate wasn't coping with them as a student teacher!

So why does this happen? Pay rate, of course.

This doesn't mean I support the obscene payments some CEOs are given, by the way.

[chameleon54]

The fast food chains often cop a bad rap for supposedly exploiting young kids, but I have found the opposite to be the case. Sure they employ a lot of school aged kids because they are cheap labor, but they also provide a first step on the employment ladder and great experience on how to actually put the mobile phone down, hustle, and get stuff done in a limited time frame as well as industry standard training programmes such as food handling, customer service etc.

As well as the child mentioned in the previous post I have another child who has just left school and not really sure what they want to do. They had a part time, after school job at a different fast food joint ( the sandwich one ) and immediately on leaving school a few weeks ago simply took up extra hours as a shift manager at a neighbouring store to be working 30 - 40 hours per week. Basically just walked into full time employment. 

One of my nephews now in his late 20,s, had an after school,  burger joint job and on leaving school  could not find further employment. He stayed with the group, worked his way into employment at their highest profile, central city location, worked his way up the food chain ( pun intended ) and is now the senior manager of the store. His has recently been offered the job of managing two other stores ( on top of the central city one ) owned by the chain and then a pathway into management at company level rather than store level. He is currently deciding whether to take up the offer or move into accounting, something he has been studying for several years.

There's no doubt employers in other industries place a value on the resumes of kids who have a consistent history of working in the fast food chains as they know, if they can stand the pressures of that industry, they are likely to be quality workers who know how to move, be flexible and get the job done.

I suspect the main problem with the kids in the OP,s link is they expect to be sitting in the managers chair the moment they leave school, rather than starting at the boring bottom and working their way up.

[the_great_she_elephant]

When evaluating the ethics of these fast food chain traineeships there are three aspects that need to be considered:

1) What percentage of staff are on traineeships?

2) How is the training structured (I.e. does it consist of anything more than learnng how to flip burgers and take orders?

3) How long does a traineeship last and is there some kind of meaningful recognition (certificate) on completion?

[martinw-48]

I had to do a traineeship once.
I told the boss if I didn't get paid I'll walk.
He paid me and made me promise not to tell all the others.
I told them all but none were brave enough to demand payment, their loss

[domino-710]

---

@martinw-48 wrote:
I had to do a traineeship once.
I told the boss if I didn't get paid I'll walk.
He paid me and made me promise not to tell all the others.
I told them all but none were brave enough to demand payment, their loss

---

LOL - begs the question - of WHY - he didn't just let you walk. 

[the_great_she_elephant]

Possibly because he knew  the 'traineeship' was of dubous legality, and was worried Martin might challenge it in  court. 

Oops, nearly forgot,   LOL