“Sorry saga”: Tony Burke torches Mantle Group, puts other businesses on notice over workplace loopholes

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has publicly condemned the actions of Mantle Group Hospitality, days after the Fair Work Commission referred its human resources chief to the Australian Federal Police for allegedly falsifying documents that backed a new staff pay deal.

Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong last week asked the AFP to investigate Mantle Group Hospitality HR chief Darren Latham, after the workplace watchdog claimed Latham intentionally misled the FWC in sworn statements backing a new enterprise agreement.

The ‘Hot Wok’ agreement, brokered in the shadow of a ‘zombie’ agreement which saw pub and restaurant workers go without penalty rates for 22 years, asked workers to “volunteer” their labour on weekends.

To establish the new pay deal, the FWC considered the statements of four Mantle Group workers who voted in its favour.

But in January, it found the four workers were high-level managers, and unlikely to even be covered by the agreement.

Meetings to discuss the agreement probably never happened, the FWC added, despite the sworn statements of Latham.

Mantle Group Hospitality has defended Latham’s character and conduct, saying it will challenge the matter in Federal Court.

“Mantle Group completely rejects the findings of the Fair Work Commission and believes the statements against Mr Latham are wrong and biased,” a Mantle Group spokesperson told SmartCompany on Monday.

“Mr Latham is a man of the utmost integrity and has done nothing wrong.

“Hot Wok is confident all decisions of the Fair Work Commission will be quashed by the Federal Court after it hears Hot Wok’s application that the Fair Work Commission was biased,” the spokesperson added.

Government to challenge businesses reliant on “loopholes”, Burke says

Speaking before the Chifley Research Centre Conference in Canberra on Sunday, Burke used Mantle Group as a warning to other companies looking to exploit “loopholes” in Australia’s workplace relations framework.

“If the Mantle Group treated their food the way they have treated their workers, the Health Department would have shut them down years ago,” he said.

“They are proof that closing loopholes will not simply be a job for this year, that some businesses have decided their entire business model will rely on finding the next loophole.”

While last year’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill included provisions that automatically ‘sunset’ expired enterprise bargaining agreements, making it harder for 22-year-old agreements to remain in place, Burke issued a warning to businesses pushing other boundaries.

“The principal loophole that needs to be shut down this year is where you have an agreement in place, which gives employees an above award payment,” he said.

“The employer has agreed to it, is part of it, it’s law, and then the employer simply says, “I’ll get a labour-hire firm in, different employer, and those workers can go back to the award”, and the entire agreement that had been made no longer matters.

“Labour hire and outsourcing should never be used where the pure objective is to undercut the rate of pay at the workplace… As I said, with Mantle, groups will then try for the next loophole,” he added.

The federal government intends to close workarounds limiting the take-home pay of workers in the same way it has cracked down on loopholes that limit government revenue, he added.

Burke outlines 2023 workplace relations agenda

The speech, held a day before the first Parliamentary sitting week of 2023, served as an opportunity for Burke to outline the second half of the government’s two-year workplace relations reform strategy.

With Secure Jobs, Better Pay forming the first round of reforms, the government will now turn its focus to issues like the classification of gig economy workers.

Under the plan, the Fair Work Commission will have the power to establish minimum employment standards for gig workers, as opposed to the independent contractor model which currently sees most delivery riders and rideshare drivers go without a minimum wage, among other entitlements offered to fully-fledged employees.

That doesn’t mean the government will champion a one-size-fits-all approach to employee classification, he said, with Burke recognising industry arguments that some people prefer the flexibility gig work provides.

“There are — I’m not pretending there aren’t — people across the board who want more secure jobs than they can currently get,” he said.

“Absolutely, that’s true, and we are delivering on that — but we also don’t want to fall into the trap of pretending that everybody who is not an employee wants to be an employee.”

Reflecting on the government’s recent $300 million arts sector funding package, Burke issued a warning to arts organisations that unfairly deal with the contractors who form the backbone of Australia’s artistic scene.

Arts enterprises that don’t work towards minimum workplace standards should not “come knocking on the door for government grants,” Burke said.

“Don’t come knocking on the door for government assistance. The very least arts workers can expect is to be treated with the dignity of being workers.”