Hamburger chain Grill’d has agreed to change its pay rates following reports that a former employee was sacked after questioning her pay.
Following the reports, founder of the burger chain, Simon Crowe says that Grill’d will now review its pay arrangements which are currently below minimum wage.
“Our intent is to make sure we very clearly do what’s right and enter into modernising our award,” Crowe told 3AW radio.
As reported by Fairfax, Kahlani Pyrah was employed at the Grill’d outlet in Camberwell, where she raised concerns over the company’s 2007 wage deal in favour of basic restaurant industry entitlements, and soon after found herself unemployed.
Pyrah said that she decided to look into her contract over pay concerns and found some details that she wanted to address. At this point she had been working for Grill’d for about a year.
Pyrah contacted her union, United Voice about the issue which resulted in a meeting with Grill’d. The company agreed to pay staff their entitlements and pay the award if the current contracts were not terminated.
According to Pyrah, the conditions stipulated in the meeting were not met, and it was then that she applied to the Fair Work Commission to have the contracts terminated. Sky News reports that Pyrah was sacked 11 days later and accused of bullying her managers. Pyrah then launched an online petition calling upon Grill’d CEO, Simon Crowe to give her job back. The petition has received almost 23,000 signatures.
A Fair Work Ombudsman spokesperson told Hospitality, "The Fair Work Ombudsman has received a request for assistance in relation to this matter and has commenced conducting inquiries. As this matter is currently ongoing, it is not appropriate to comment further at this time."