Updated January 26, 2012 08:39:50


Young workers at a Cessnock pizza outlet underpaid by almost $50,000.   

   

The Shop Assistant's Union has applauded the Fair Work Ombudsman for prosecuting a Cessnock fast food outlet caught paying its employees just $9 an hour.

It is alleged Stacborn Propriety Limited, which operates the Eagle Boys Franchise at Cessnock, underpaid 19 employees almost $49,000 between October 2008 and June 2010.   

The Ombudsman says junior workers should be paid at least $12 an hour.

The Union's Northern Secretary Barbara Nebart says she has seen many young workers in similar circumstances.   

"Mostly it affects young workers who are either intimidated or ignorant of their rights and we find out about these things after they've left," she said.

"I must say the fast food companies that we deal with the majors are very good about this sort of thing, it's the smaller chains and the individual franchisees that get themselves into trouble."

Ms Nebart says some Hunter fast food outlets have been totally unscrupulous in the way they exploit teenage workers.   

"We had a case not so log ago when a franchisee was well aware of what he was doing.   

"We were taking him to the commission and he shut up shop and opened the next day with a different ABN.

"So we were unable to pursue a large part of what we were claiming back for employees because that's how he got around it."