I’ve lost my job as a delivery driver at Crust Pizza. Again. The boss claims I’ve “caused too many problems in the store”. This isn’t the first time I’ve been chucked out for suggesting that Crust workers should be paid according to the award.

Last week, 11 of my workmates submitted complaint forms to the Fair Work Ombudsman in a bid to change the illegal conditions we work under. This is the latest step in a fight that started months ago.

In April, a few workmates and I prepared a petition which detailed the unlawful conditions that we wanted fixed. At the Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar in Gungahlin, Canberra, nobody gets penalty rates or breaks. But worst off are the drivers.

Most of these workers are international students, the victims of restrictive visa conditions limiting their allowable working hours to a maximum of 20 per week. They rely on the money they earn at Crust to pay university fees, rent and living expenses. Ultimately, they rely on what they make to stay in the country.

Crust Pizza pays its delivery drivers cash in hand at piece rates. The more pizzas you deliver, the more you get paid – $12, $15 or the maximum of $17 an hour. The same conditions apply to all drivers, regardless of age.

By the time we got all of our demands written down, our petition was eight pages long, with 19 signatures. In front of cheering customers, we submitted it to to the boss. He threatened to call the police. We persisted.

A customer intervened, asking in disbelief whether what we were saying was true. Attempting to defend himself, the boss said he wasn’t doing anything different from any other Crust owner. The wages and conditions of drivers at his store were “the practice of every single Crust store”.

Fast food work is often seen as meaningless, temporary and not even a “real” job. These ideas encourage fast food workers to keep our heads down no matter how bad our treatment. The only people who benefit from this are the bosses, who make very real profits from the work we do.    

Workers in fast food and hospitality should be prepared to stand up when our rights are being trampled, to join the union and organise. Otherwise, already sub-par conditions will only get worse, as the nationwide attack on penalty rates suggests.

The workers at Crust Pizza in Gungahlin continue to put up a fight, with support from the Transport Workers Union and United Voice. “We’re fighting back because it’s unfair for things like this to happen in this day and age”, one of my co-workers said. “Everyone deserves to be paid fairly and equally for the work that they do.”