Grill’d grilled over $16.6M taxpayer bill for ‘hamburger university’
Grill’d has come under fire for the second time in three years, this time for billing taxpayers $16.6 million for sending its staff to ‘burger university’.
The burger chain is being accused of misusing the COVID-19 apprenticeship program, which it used toward the wages of almost 3000 workers, while paying these workers less per hour than non-trainees.
Under company policy, new staff at Grill’d must undertake vocational training. The burger chain has now been criticised for the policy which enabled it to pay less per hour but still claim up to $28,000 a year for each trainee.
Grill’d used the Morrison government’s $3.9 billion Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements program (BAP), to pay for 2800 employees – more than double the second-largest user of the scheme (Reece).
The government scheme allowed employers to claim a 50 per cent wage subsidy for all trainees who started work between 5 October 2020 and 30 June, 2022.
Grill’d averaged about 30 new trainees per week during the eligibility period. United Workers Union director Godfrey Moase has question what training took place.
“We are very concerned if it is mainly an effort by the company to drive wages to egregiously low levels,” Mr Moase said.
“We were and continue to be critical of aspects of this traineeship program … the existence of traineeship schemes of questionable merit shouldn’t be used as a way of unfairly suppressing wages.”
The union and Grill’d have been at loggerheads before over employment agreements
An 18-year-old school-leaver on a traineeship gets $14.95 an hour compared to $17.20 for a non-trainee under the Grill’d EBA. Meanwhile, a 20-year-old trainee gets $17.85 an hour compared to a non-trainee on $22.05.
Grill’d has defended itself stating: “Throughout the various stages of COVID, BAP has been essential in keeping restaurants open, and our teams employed.
“Grill’d will continue to focus on learning and development to upskill our people to deliver upon the best experience possible for our guests.”
In 2019, Grill’d was criticised for claiming $7 million in taxpayer support between 2005-06 and 2019-20 for trainees on wages that were below the standard.
Employees also spoke out, claiming qualifications were hard to complete and that it was even harder to move to higher hourly rates.
An investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman in late-2019 was completed a year later, but no conclusions were made public.
The Grill’d website claims 774 employees received a hospitality certificate over the past 12 months. The company offers certificates II and II in hospitality, for which Grill’d claimed $5.8 million for 2200 staff, and various leadership qualifications, which cost about $6.8 million for 550 staff. 42 staff did certificate III in retail, for which Grill’d claimed $134,131.
On average, Grill’d claimed just under $6000 per employee from taxpayers.
Irit Jackson, 12th July 2022
