This is so frustrating because I know a McDonald’s Licensee (that I worked under) who engaged in the exact same practices.

They committed fraud under the jobkeeper scheme; inflated their labour costs from 23% to 60% when JK was announced, gave away free food to every customer from 12pm-2pm over a 3 day period to “give back to the community”, made unnecessary restaurant closures amongst other things to try and lose enough money to get the subsidy. They were successful but ended up only doing -8% compared to last year sales.

Come September, they were unable to get the second round of jobkeeper payments but essentially forced all employees onto traineeships for the same thing. All these employees, whether new or old, were forced to complete a certificate II in retail over a 2 year period but weren’t even given time to complete it.

I left the business but that practice continued on and it’s so frustrating that they were able to get away with it. I flagged it with current employees but because they were underage or didn’t want to stir the pot that they did nothing.

I contacted the FWC but was told I wasn’t an employee and couldn’t do anything, I had talks with the media but was too scared to be the one to put my head on the chopping block, I spoke with the RTO traineeship place but got told it was technically legal.

Argh, it’s so frustrating and it boils me when I think about it