Changing Hands

Two weeks ago, i was sitting at the bar, having my usual wednesday nights mud cakes. Chewie came up to me, and we had our usual random quiet night talks. Halfway through, he turned to me, “oh yer, before i forget, i am getting fired.” i stopped eating and looked at him shocked. his smile was still there, but the twinkle in his eyes were gone.

Let me explain a few things. The franchise owner of our restaurant owns 3 franchises around this area. One in civic, one in Woden, and one in batesman bay. As such, he can’t possibly oversee all his restaurants personally. under the franchise rulings, if the franchise owner does not personally over see the shop, he has to nominate someone to do it. Which was what Big Guy did - he nominated Chewie for our franchise.

Some where at the end of last year, he decided he was tired of handling 3 different franchises. while not entirely far apart, the personalities of all 3 franchises differ so much that we don’t even have the same tipping culture. Besides, there’s more than bills to pay and a brand name to worry about when you are franchising. He managed to sell the one down in Batesman bay, and now it’s just us… because he wants to concentrate on developing Woden’s franchise. That bit baffles me though - Our branch is so much better than Woden’s branch. Why give up something that’s already there to build what’s not there?

anyways, I could see Chewie isn’t happy. there’s nothing he can do about it though. the new franchise owner does not want to be another Big Guy. He undertook the 3 months franchise owner training, and would be training in-store for the next 3 months when he officially buys over the restaurant. Also, he doesn’t have the finances to keep Chewie. This made alot of us sad though. Chewie has become like an unofficial daddy for all of us, infact, we all behave like one big family.

although, initially, Big Guy didn’t want to have Chewie at his branch either, but now apparently he offered a job to Chewie, so he would still be working, just not with us.

With the new owner though, there was a notice today, which is something i am not quite used to. Since there’s a transfer of ownership, there’s also a change of houserules AND legalities - as well as pay. The proposed new pay, which is the main thing most of us were interested in when Don pointed it out to us, was that our pay would be LOWERED by a dollar each. There’s also an introduction of Casual Pay Rates, and rules like “you can’t work for 10 days in a row.” At present, all of us are permanent part-timers with benefits. This includes superannuation (like a retirement fund), Holiday Pay (which we can cash in if unused) and some other shit. There’s only 4 real pay levels: Trainee, Proficient, Supervisery (only 2 people are on it anyways -.-) and Management (and that’s only Chewie there). all these rates, while negotiable, are pretty much a tight fit.

The starting rates are 13.25 or something, then 14.75 (mine) then 16.75, and finally some weird amount i didn’t bother to read. so basically, the new guy’s proposal is something like 12.75, 13.25, 15.25 and since he won’t be paying himself, whatever amount.

As a result of these changes, we were asked to “vote” if we agree on it, or do we expect some changes.

or and casual rates are 16.75, at my level.

Well, obviously i already don’t agree with the pay rates. i don’t really care if i have casual rates or permanent part time rates, but either ways, it’s a lesser rate than what i be earning now (some basic maths will show you). Secondly, if you ask me, i would stay permanent part-time anyways. even if we keep it at the right rate of 17.80 or somethin per hour… mathematically speaking, i earn more in a week with the “holiday” pay thing than without. Superannuation is such a negligible amount, i don’t give 2 shits about it.

And finally, logically speaking, while this is a good thing for worker rights, it’s not very smart to say we aren’t allowed to work 10 days straight. We are often short staffed. if on the day of the “10th” day of someone, some idiot doesn’t turn up for work, the ones who CAN and have to work, would have to cover extra sections/do more work. which basically goes back to encrouching on our abilities to provide good services and get good tips.

And i wish i can vote against Chewie leaving =/

oh wells, bed time. DNA Seminar tomorrow afternoon.

technorati tags:work, changes, constituition, rates, new, personal, blog