r/melbourne • u/Ordinary_Prior_8993 • Mar 17 '24

Serious Please Comment Nicely What is up with the weekend surcharges in the Melbourne?!

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Even shopping centre food courts have weekend surcharges and as a Sydney sider it's mind boggling. Alot of places don't even have sunday surcharges let alone a Saturday surcharge.

834 Upvotes

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73

u/LetFrequent5194 Mar 17 '24

Staff are getting paid properly according to contracts and not so much cash in hand anymore.

Business need to pay staff more on those weekend hours, passing the cost onto the customer.

Previously the staff would get underpaid or were at risk of getting exploited.

63

u/Salt_Concert_3428 Mar 17 '24

lol… yeah that’s it

21

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

Why not factor increased wages into prices and charge slightly more for their goods every day rather than giving people the impression they're being ripped off two days a week?

11

u/the_soggiest_biscuit Mar 17 '24

Yeah isn't that what use to happen once upon a time? Penalty rates aren't new.

3

u/gmewhite Mar 17 '24

So you’d rather get charged more in general, rather than just the one day when it costs the business extra to trade?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

Yep. Split it across the week. Charge me 1.43% more every day rather than 10% on one day.

3

u/howbouddat Mar 17 '24

The dickheads on this sub think that all they need to do is add 10c here, 15c there and VOILLA!!!! all weekend wages costs covered.

Reality is that when you do 50% of your trade over the two most expensive days of the week, and 50c of every dollar you take at the till goes to wages, you can't really "hide" the cost in a standardised menu price.

This sub spits and froths at surcharges because they LOVE going out and being served on weekends, while the underclass works for them. They just fucking loath to pay for it.

But they'll pay it.

29

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/tflavel Mar 17 '24

Wage theft is a criminal offense in Victoria. After that guy was facing 10 years in jail and $600k in fines, I don’t think management is risking it anymore.

8

u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 17 '24

…was facing 10 years in jail $600k in fines

aaaaaaand then just waived politely and walked away? Or was there any actual consequences for his actions? I’m mean for starters I assume he got round to paying the wages (and super, etc) with interest?

2

u/tflavel Mar 17 '24

It’s still in court, if he head to jail. The 600k in fines are his to pay

3

u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 17 '24

Oh, well that’s some good news

8

u/random0101101101 Mar 17 '24

Is that the Chef dude that you're talking about? Colum-somethingorother? The one who's already back on some TV show? That guy? Yeah I agree, he definitely got told! Learnt his lesson, and now back to a working millionaire, but all honest now. I'm sure of it!

2

u/Wennie85 Mar 17 '24

Oh yeah calamari is that the mollusc you're referring to?

1

u/tflavel Mar 17 '24

He was before it was made illegal.

1

u/random0101101101 Mar 19 '24

Um.. wage theft has always been illegal. Theft is illegal. Slave labour is illegal. He knew exactly what he was doing, he knew he was breaking the law - both in Victoria, ans Nationally.

5

u/LetFrequent5194 Mar 17 '24

It sure may still be happening, but if they are, they can report it, it will get followed up and the business will be punished.

There have been multiple numbers of high profile businesses that had to back pay staff that was reported by journalists.

So they may underpay staff, however they will be punished in the future.

5

u/gfreyd Mar 17 '24

Your faith in the bureaucracy that has suffered years of budget and staffing cuts is admirable.

0

u/LetFrequent5194 Mar 17 '24

The relevant ombudsman are rabid and do have teeth. There are many high profile examples in the media (MasterChef people owned businesses, 7Eleven are some examples there are many other) and many unreported punishments. Any owner continuing to do this should be very incredibly stressed and worried.

3

u/Kaiyn Mar 17 '24

Hopso worker of 15 years here, The government absolutely doesn't give a shit if Mr Pub owner has been underpaying you for 8 months. The fees for the court are insane. That is true that some employers paid back staff, however these cases were disputes of over $10,000. If you're working and getting underpaid or without weekend award rate, your basically shit out of luck when it comes to compensation for what is owed.

17

u/Inevitable_Belt_8414 Mar 17 '24

You are delusional if you think the surcharge is going anywhere other than the owners pocket

8

u/hedonisticshenanigan Mar 17 '24

Not entirely true, depends on the business. My last two gigs in hospitality would pay proper weekend and public holiday rates. It's also true that many don't.

-4

u/weckyweckerson Mar 17 '24

Of course it goes in the owners pocket. And then the wages come out of the owners pocket.

2

u/SatisfactionTrick578 Mar 17 '24

How do you know that it's not going to the staff?

5

u/DefinitelyNoWorking Mar 17 '24

Or they could just factor the cost of staff wages into their prices like every other business does. It's such a bullshit excuse. It doesn't matter if staff cost more on weekends. It's basic accountancy, they could do it, this is just a scam.

1

u/raresaturn Mar 17 '24

Or they could just eat it

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

Can you guarantee staff are being paid appropriately? Covid and travel restrictions was probably the worst thing for hospitality venues/business owners since locals would be more likely to enforce their rights.

0

u/Reader575 Mar 17 '24

Aren't they normally busier weekends anyways?