By James Atkinson
Bavarian Hospitality Group (BHG) has strenuously denied union claims that some of its staff were underpaid by its appointed labour hire firm, HRO Initiatives.
The United Voice union last week claimed that as many as 250 casual employees of the group's Bavarian Bier Cafe chain were owed thousands of dollars in unpaid penalty rates, and wages that were below the minimum wage.
BHG said in a statement that HRO initiatives had undertaken a full audit of its payments to staff and found that none, including the former employee named in media reports, had been underpaid.
"All of the staff employed by HRO are paid in strict accordance with the HRO Initiatives Pty Ltd Employee Collective Agreement 2007 and the National
Employment Standards, as set down by the Fair Work Act 2009," it said.
BHG said the relevant casual hourly rate for a introductory level employee is $18.92.
"The employee in question has been paid at or above this rate for all 36 hours of her engagement at BHG," it said.
BHG added that there is no evidence that the employee or the union had started court action against the company.
"In fact, the union has only provided details of their concerns to HRO by facsimile today," it said.
"Prior to this story appearing HRO had twice contacted the union requesting specific details regarding allegations they were making so that we could investigate the claims fully, unfortunately they did not respond to these requests and nor did the employee concerned raise the complaint with us prior to approaching the media."