Pizza franchise accused of visa fraud
Print Edition
SOME Domino’s Pizza franchise holders in Australia are demanding payment from foreign workers to support their visa applications, according to an undercover investigation by Fairfax Media.
The Australian media outlet said sums of more than A$100,000 (US$76,700) were being demanded.
A phone call by an undercover Chinese student working for Fairfax recorded a Domino’s franchisee in North Queensland saying in Mandarin: “I will say straight that we want to sell this sponsorship, but you need to pay some money.” A figure of up to A$150,000 is mentioned.
The accusation of visa fraud comes at a time when the franchise is being investigated by Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman after a six-month investigation by Fairfax which alleged that the company systematically underpaid its workers at a number of stores across the country.
Fairfax claimed that several workers from China and India were being offered sponsorships in return for their cheap labor.
“I know of one person who is sponsored and works 60 hours a week and gets paid for 40 hours,” former Domino’s store manager Azrael Yin told Fairfax.
“Franchisees know if they ask the manager being sponsored to edit people’s time worked to save on wages, they will feel obligated to do it for fear of losing their sponsorship.
“One of the workers went back to China after the rip-off.”
Despite the business selling over a million pizzas a week in Australia and the company’s incredible success on the Australian Securities Exchange, which saw its share price rise from A$2.20 in 2005 when first listed to over A$60 per share currently, it appears that individual stores are struggling to make a profit.
“If this week bad sales, labor blows out to 33 percent of sales, so I receive a call to make it 27 percent. Then I deduct my own time as well as the other workers’,” Yin said.
“I remember I had to use my wife to do deliveries with my two kids in the back of the car. I thought I would stay in the system long enough to recoup my costs first, but the longer I stayed in the system the worse it got.”
One franchise owner blames the issue on lower pizza prices.
As food costs, labor, rent and other expenses have continued to rise, the price of pizza has actually declined to levels last seen in the 1990s.
“At the same time, Domino’s profit is doubling. Hence, we have clients winning by purchasing cheap food, Domino’s profits are skyrocketing. So, nobody is left to pay for this but the franchisees,” Kamran Talebi said.
In a statement, Domino’s said: “There is no reason, no excuse, and no tolerance for any Domino’s franchise that chooses not to pay its employees correctly or fails to meet expectations around ethics and governance. Domino’s has found no evidence of a link between franchisee profitability and breaches of employment obligations in this time.”
But one worker told Fairfax: “I have on a regular basis, if not every single day, have been asked to work for at least one to two hours without pay ... I have not been paid my double pay as per union agreements and legislation. Also, sometimes my clock-in hours have changed without my knowledge. I have been very depressed for the past two months and have been admitted to St Vincent Hospital.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
