One of Domino's Pizza's biggest and most powerful franchisees is being investigated by the workplace regulator amid allegations of worker exploitation.
Franchisee Pamir Dehsabzi, who runs 10 stores on the outskirts of Sydney and sits on the company's influential Franchisee Advisory Committee, is being probed by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
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'It will be more than $100,000...'
Domino's Pizza franchisee discusses the price of securing a visa.
It follows a Fairfax Media investigation last month that revealed rampant wage underpayment across the pizza group's network of franchised stores. It highlighted some of the practices at Dehsabzi's stores.
Since the scandal broke, a number of former managers have come forward saying it was standard practice for Dehsabzi and a relative to instruct managers to keep labour costs below 27 per cent of sales and manipulate payroll data, including paying workers less hours than they actually worked.
This isn't the first time Dehsabzi has been on the regulator's radar. The Fair Work Ombudsman and its predecessor organisations recovered back pay for 12 employees engaged by a company related to Dehsabzi.
Separately, Domino's audited Dehsabzi last year after receiving a complaint from a store manager in May 2016. Domino's said the audit identified a "limited number of discrepancies with our management policies, which were rectified".
Domino's said it has "zero tolerance" for worker exploitation and will take action against anyone caught deliberately underpaying workers. It said it will conduct spot checks covering two weeks' worth of records across its network of stores by the end of June. The "preliminary audits" will be conducted internally and if misconduct is suspected it will be elevated to a full blown audit conducted by an external party.
In response to a series of questions relating to Dehsabzi, Domino's said in a statement it would not be appropriate to comment on an individual investigation which may occur.
"Domino's will provide full assistance to the Ombudsman with any investigation they undertake," the statement said.
Speaking from China, former store manager Xiao Yang Tang said he worked in five stores between 2014 and 2016 and was told he had to keep labour costs below 27 per cent of sales by any means.
"Everyone had to do it or our money would be rejected," he said.
Tang said he worked up to 60 hours a week but was paid for only 40 hours. "I was told the money would be made up when we get a good day, but that didn't happen.
Once I was told I 'would be put in the oven' he was so mad.
Xiao Yang Tang, Former Domino's worker
"I was very nervous and afraid working in the stores. If the sales weren't good or the [audit score] wasn't a pass I would be shouted at," he says. "Once I was told I 'would be put in the oven' he was so mad," he said.
Fairfax has obtained payslips and sales reports from when Tang was working as a store manager in North Strathfield, which shows he was paid for pizza deliveries he never made. This had the effect of denying him overtime payments for extra hours he worked.
During one week in July last year he was credited with making 80 deliveries and working 38 hours. But according to internal sales reports for the same week he made no deliveries and worked 56 hours.
Dehsabzi admitted to being investigated by Fair Work but otherwise did not respond to questions from Fairfax.
He previously told Fairfax Media he had asked managers to keep labour costs at 27 per cent, but denied underpaying employees, saying any discrepancies were due to staff not signing out properly.
"My staff does not following the sign In/Out accurately. They often finish their rostered work and then are having fun, staying and talking with their friends or eating food, but they haven't signed out. They know we pay based on the roster," he said in February.
Dehsabzi joined the Domino's network 15 years ago as a delivery driver. He was put forward to Fairfax Media by Domino's chief executive Don Meij as a satisfied franchisee (Meij forwarded an unsolicited email Dehsabzi had written to him in January that outlined his passion for Domino's and how the company had achieved what franchisees could never have dreamed about.)
In an article in the Parramatta Advertiser he said "hard slog" set him up for success.
But former managers link his success to putting a ceiling of 27 per cent on labour costs, irrespective of how many hours his workers have actually worked.
Azrael Yin worked in Dehsabzi's Gladesville store in Sydney between 2014 and 2016.
Sales reports seen by Fairfax show Yin worked between 50 hours and 60 hours a week but his payslips often showed he worked 35 hours. Like Tang he was credited with payments for deliveries he never made.
Yin blew the whistle on Dehsabzi's practices to Domino's head office but never heard back.
On January 19, 2017, another worker in another store wrote to Dehsabzi asking him to "please pay them [staff] on time and correctly".
He said: "Last week our labour is 27 per cent but you deduct lots of our staff salary ... today is my day off ...
"But after I know you hold our pay, I have to come back to the store and spend more than an hour to write this email."
Another manager, Alan Chiu, told Fairfax he worked for Dehsabzi for more than five years as a store manager in four stores, including Gladesville, West Ryde, North Strathfield. He left in November 2015.
"It is the same, I try to maintain the labour percentage to 27 percentage or pay was cut," he said.
He said if the labour wasn't 27 per cent he was told to "redo" it.
"My wife would say: 'This week, labour is about 27 per cent' and I do the payroll for her, and she would say: 'It is only 27 you have to redo'. She just say make it 27."
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