Former store managers at fast food chain KFC say they were told to manipulate rosters in the lead up to public holidays so the company could avoid giving staff a day in lieu.
Checkpoint with John Campbell has spoken to five former store managers who say they were sent an excel spreadsheet unofficially called a 'yellow list' in the weeks before public holidays.
The managers say employees who needed their shifts changed, stopping them from being entitled to a day in lieu, were highlighted in yellow.
They say yellow lists were sent by either their area manager, or payroll at KFC head office, and were to "control labour costs".
And corporate HQ explicitly praised store managers who manipulated rosters to ensure that no-one got paid for their day off.
This is simply theft, an abuse of their power as an employer to steal entitlements from their workers. But its also clear that KFC are arseholes. And who wants to buy from thieving arseholes?
The good news is that its also probably illegal: burger chain Wendy's used the same techniques, and the Employment Relations Authority has just ruled that it is illegal and that they must review all public holidays for the past five years and repay thjeir employees for any holidays they've stolen. Other fast food companies are following the ruling, and hopefully KFC will too. Otherwise, I guess their workers will just have to take them to court, and make them pay not just for stolen holidays, but the costs of enforcing them as well.