McDonald's proposes return to mediation over zero-hours contracts

Unite director Mike Treen led his delegates out of a five-hour mediation meeting on Tuesday because he said McDonald's refused to guarantee 80 per cent of actual hours and insisted on guaranteeing 80 per cent of rostered hours only.

"Rosters go up and down. We can't measure a roster," he said. "At the end of it I said, 'Are you moving from scheduled hours to worked hours in your proposal?' And they said no."

However McDonald's human relations manager Christine Hutton emailed Mr Treen at 4.30pm yesterday proposing further mediation dates between April 17 and 29. Spokeswoman Kim Bartlett said the company was willing to talk about scheduled or worked hours.

"Our initial offer was exactly the same as Restaurant Brands but it was scheduled hours, theirs was worked hours," she said. "We are willing to have a discussion with Unite about that, but to do that we have to be in the same room."

Mr Treen said he would accept more mediation if McDonald's assured him that it was willing to make "a meaningful offer".