Wendy's appears to have started cheating workers of their public holiday entitlements when it is "an otherwise working day" for them.

"An otherwise working day" is the legal term for deciding if you get an alternative holiday (lieu day) for working that day or you get paid your normal hours if you don't work that day for whatever reason.

In the past Wendy's accepted that if a worker had worked at least 7/13 of a particular day in the three months before the public holiday.

However, when we audited what the company was doing for Labour Day last year and the four public holidays over Christmas and New Year, we found that many members who should have qualified for these entitlements didn't get all or any of them.

Some union members were rostered off on the public holidays and given hours on another day that week to meet their minimum guaranteed hours number. But they still should have been paid for the public holiday.

It seems many workers who worked the public holidays were also denied an alternative day as a holiday (a lieu day) when they were entitled to one.

Unite Union has begun legal action against Wendy's to force them to back pay workers for their lost entitlements.

We consider this just another form of wage theft.

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