Delivery drivers at a Crust Pizza store in Kingston, Canberra, have won improved conditions after an employee stood up to the boss over illegal underpayments and dangerous practices. 

Simon Cole, a student at the Canberra Institute of Technology, was inspired to contact Unions ACT and then United Voice after hearing that Crust Pizza workers at another outlet resisted similar underpayments last year.

“All my workmates knew about what happened at Gungahlin”, he told Red Flag. “When I saw the story in the paper, I thought – the momentum’s already rolling, we need to keep this going.”

In 2015, employees at Crust Gungahlin collectively took action over the treatment of delivery drivers, most of whom were international students. The delivery drivers were being paid cash in hand at piece rates and earning less than the minimum wage.

Most of the delivery drivers at Cole’s workplace are also international students, paid a base rate of $15 an hour in cash. But part of their wage is variable and depends on how many deliveries they complete each shift. The company describes this payment as a “petrol allowance”, but the payment is based on a tally of pizzas delivered, not kilometres driven. The more pizzas workers deliver, the more they get paid – an incentive to speed. If workers raise issues with management, they get the sack.

Cole himself had his shifts drastically reduced after filing a complaint with Fair Work, being told by his managers that although he was “a good worker, others would do it for cheaper”.

The similarity of the complaints at the two workplaces provides evidence that, despite company denials, these practices are likely to be widespread across the Crust franchise.

“The owners at Kingston own a few of the Crust stores around Canberra, but the last guys paid us cash in hand too”, Cole said.

Crust Pizza’s disregard for the safety of their employees, and others on the road, is clear. In one near miss, Cole came close to crashing his car on shift. When he tried to collect his delivery history as proof of employment, the manager snatched the dockets from his hand.

Following his experiences, Cole joined the Transport Workers Union. “I wish I’d joined earlier”, he said. “Workers can’t afford fancy lawyers. What we can do is join our union. Without it, we’d be fucked.”

The workers at Crust Kingston join a growing list of young workers fighting back in low wage industries. Unions ACT is pushing for an audit of the national Crust Pizza franchise.