Tyranny of McDonalds in Korea, the Unpaid Wages, Exiguous Compensation and Unfair Dismissal of Part-time Workers
Tyranny of McDonalds in Korea, the Unpaid Wages, Exiguous Compensation and Unfair Dismissal of Part-time Workers
  • by Lee Jae-seung(jasonlee@koreaittimes.com)
  • 승인 2014.12.23 00:45
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Last September in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, Miss Lee, a 22 year old college student, heard shocking news from her manager after a year of part-time employment at a local McDonalds. It was her manager telling Lee who was a member of the labor union “Alba Nojo” at that time that “her labor activities were making her colleagues uncomfortable” and that she had to be fired. Miss Lee, an ordinary college student, who used to be consistently admired by both her manager and colleagues for her hard work and extra hours, was immediately terminated of employment that same day. Reluctant to accept these sudden turns of events, Miss Lee visited the offices of McDonalds Korea, but this was inevitably in vain. And fast forward to today, Miss Lee is waiting for results from an unfair dismissal complaint she made on the 12th a few weeks ago.

Now, one thing that is clear is that this wasn’t simply an unfortunate incident. This is just an example of McDonalds’s devious behavior towards its workers. Moreover, in an effort to avoid extra compensation of part time employees working more than 60 hours on a monthly basis, McDonalds is behind countless instances of unfair dismissals and unpaid wages for employees especially in the case of part-time young adults.

According to a survey conducted by the aforementioned labor union “Alba Nojo”, an official trade union formed last year, 64% of the 1625 participants who were either past or current part-time workers at McDonalds fast food restaurants responded that there were times when their managers would convince them to come later or leave earlier than the specified work hours because of “a lack of customers” at the restaurants. The so-called “Ggukk-Ki” which is a strategy used to prevent workers from receiving extra wages for more work put in is prevalent in many fast food chains in addition to many other places, and continues to cut workers from more compensation from the work they do.

Therefore, the situation seems very severe with 22% (353 people) responding that there have been times when all of the employees at the restaurant received less than their monthly total of wages, and it has especially shown concern for the 197 of participants who were “riders” as in deliverymen. Furthermore, according to the results, 30% of “riders” responded to the survey in having instances where they didn’t receive their total monthly wages which is higher than the average percentage of respondents who said the same thing. Finally, an alarming 44% of the participants responded yes to if the reason that they were given for their lower compensation was that “wages depended on hours worked and nothing else”.

Alba Nojo says that the reason for these countless cases of part-time workers receiving less than they worked for is behind the manager. The employee works a certain number of hours which is totaled at the end of the month. However, despite the part-timers punching in lots and lots of time, the managers record less which results in less time at the end of the month and less money for the people who work at McDonalds or some other establishment. In addition, more than half of the respondents (52%) said yes to if they weren’t given the opportunity or haven’t seen their employment contract which they signed when they were hired which makes things more suspicious.

Since the survey, Alba Nojo has requested an action of collective bargaining to the McDonalds South Korean branch. In addition, Mr. Kyu, chairperson of Albo Nojo, stated that “Although McDonalds constantly says that their employees are always a priority, the employees that they are talking about virtually don’t include part-time workers” and that if McDonalds refuses a move toward collective bargaining he will go to court with the material he has.

In response to this, McDonalds has made a press release stating that certified outside consultants visit the majority of their establishments every month and verify labor conditions in accordance with South Korean labor law. In the same press release, it has also stressed that managers at its retail establishments are checked every quarter to see if they comply by labor regulations.

By Lee Jae-seung


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