Hungry Jack's has come under fire after advertising for interns to fill summer workforce. Photo / 123RF
Hungry Jack's has come under fire after advertising for interns to fill summer workforce. Photo / 123RF
Hungry Jack's, the Australian fast food franchise of Burger King Corporation, has come under fire after advertising for interns to fill its summer workforce.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union has slammed the franchise on Facebook, sharing an image of a job advertisement that says it is "looking tohelp out young people with their first job", and will offer interns 15 hours per week across Sydney stores.
"The Federal Government's A$4 ($4.18) per hour 'internships' were not supposed to swallow up jobs," the union said. "This year Hungry Jacks literally replaced its Christmas casual hires with the taxpayer funded internships.
"These were real jobs paid by Hungry Jacks, but are now paid by the Government and guaranteed to be no more than three months. An entire seasonal workforce replaced with this rotten program."
The internships are part of a government program to get jobseekers under 25 years old into the workforce.
The program sees interns work up to 25 hours per week for up to three months, in exchange for A$200 per fortnight from the federal government on top of their standard unemployment benefits — the equivalent of around A$4 an hour on top of their usual payments.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus slammed the scheme, calling it a "whopper rip-off".
The Liberal Government takes away our jobs and our pay. These Christmas jobs (or extra hours for current Hungry Jacks employees) are replaced with $4/hour internships. And who pays? We do! They are tax funded so cost this multinational nothing. A whopper rip-off! pic.twitter.com/FZY4qVZBfb
"Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd is transparent in its workplace agreements and complies with all relevant legislation," a spokesperson for the fast food giant said in a statement. "Currently, the corporation is not advertising for interns and employs no interns in its restaurants.
"From time to time, internships are offered to the long-term unemployed. These internships, part of the Federal Government's Youth Job Path Program, last from 4 to 12 weeks and aim to assist people in gaining employment.
"Hungry Jack's franchisees also participate in similar socially responsible programs to assist the long-term unemployed and it is the obligation of each individual franchisee to ensure employees are paid under the relevant and current awards.
"Hungry Jack's places the utmost importance on the fair treatment of all stakeholders connected to the company."
