Super-Sized Payout For MacDonald’s Worker

Stuff.co.nz:

A teenage McDonald’s worker who was forced to quit her job after she joined a union has won a super-sized payout.

Employment Relations Authority member Philip Cheyne ruled that Chantelle Coup, now 19, was constructively dismissed, and ordered the franchisee to pay her $15,000.

Coup was 17 when she worked for the fastfood giant’s Kaiapoi restaurant.

The authority found the actions of McDonald’s Kaiapoi were a “very serious interference of Ms Coup’s freedom of choice about union membership”, breaching the Employment Relations Act and its employer duties.

Coup, who now lives in Brisbane, said it had been a terrible time for her.

She said she had taken medication for depression as a result of the stress and had failed the travel and tourism course she was studying.

She said yesterday that “$15,000 is a lot of money, but it doesn’t help what has happened”.

“They are grown adults taking on teenagers, which is really sad.”

Coup said that after joining the Unite union, she was pressured to resign from it and after refusing, had her hours cut while being bullied in other ways. Read on.