Domino's Pizza wage deal voted up but faces Fair Work challenge

Domino’s first enterprise agreement to introduce full penalty rates and casual loading has been overwhelmingly voted up by employees. But the franchise is now facing a new battle to get the deal past the Fair Work Commission, with the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union promising to challenge the agreement as not better off than the industry minimum. Ballot results released on Wednesday showed 89%, or 4,822 employees, backed the new agreement with just 11%, 596, voting against it. About 30 % of Domino’s 18,000 employees took part in the vote. The agreement is the first Domino’s deal in about five years. The majority vote came despite unions splitting over their support for the new agreement. Principle negotiator, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, backed the deal while the smaller RAFFWU opposed its removal of fixed-term rosters for part-time employees. SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said the agreement was a “strong package of wages and conditions that would serve as an excellent base for future conditions”. He said the SDA had negotiated part-time work guarantees of 15 hours a week, compared to the award minimum of three hours. “In a workplace environment characterised by casualisation and underemployment, this is an important win for Domino’s part time workers who now have access to a reliable weekly income. “We’re also pleased to see a package of above award conditions including voluntary work on public holidays, improvements to the uniform provision and greater leave benefits locked in with this agreement.” But RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan, who successfully led the push to axe retail giant Coles’ enterprise agreement in 2016, said the Domino’s deal failed the Fair Work Act’s better off overall test. “We’re going to challenge it on a whole range of fronts,” he said. “We don’t think the agreement has got any prospect of being properly approved.”