Union rejects claims McDonald’s workers are being short-changed

The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association has rejected reports McDonald’s workers are being short-changed millions of dollars.

The Fairfax investigation found the national agreement, struck in 2013, contains no weekend penalty rates and restricts late night rates to a 10 per cent loading from 1am to 5am.

But the Union’s National Secretary, Gerard Dwyer, said workers agreed to a higher base rate.

‘It is not unusual in our industrial relations systems for some workforces to actually vote, as 97 per cent of McDonalds workers did,’ he explained on 3AW Breakfast.

‘It actually incorporates those weekend penalties into a higher base rate, which then applies across the seven days of the week.’