Chris Leslie, the new Chief Operating Officer of
Pizza Hut, is suing his former employer McDonald’s afer being terminated while on parental leave.
Leslie, the former franchise director of McDonald’s, is claiming the fast food restaurant retrenched him without paying his redundancy entitlements.
During his employment at McDonald’s, Leslie was offered a new contract as their director of development for the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions.
However, after a little over a year in the job, McDonald’s informed him his role had been abolished as part of a global restructure, according to Fairfax Media.
Then McDonald's global human resources director, Matthew Sproll and its general counsel Craig Cawood allegedly dismissed him when Leslie went on an "extended period of parental leave".
HRD contacted McDonald’s for comment, but a spokesperson said they would not be making any comment in relation to this.
HRD also contacted Pizza Hut for comment, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Leslie claimed that at the time of his dismissal McDonald's "had not appointed anyone else to perform that role, and nor had it identified any other suitable role" for him.
"[I]n those circumstances the appropriate inference is that he was terminated because [McDonald's] no longer required the job done by the applicant to be done by anyone," his statement of claim said.
Leslie argues that McDonald's wrongfully terminated him and that it should have paid him $50,000 in redundancy pay plus an extra $62,000 in lieu of the required three months' notice under his contract.
"By reason of the said breach, [Mr Leslie] has suffered loss and damage," the claim said.
Leslie is calling for the Federal Circuit Court to penalise McDonald's for breaching the Fair Work Act, orders to pay damages for breach of contract and compensation for his redundancy and notice.
Collectively, Leslie and two other former McDonald's executives launched legal action against McDonald’s for more than $100,000 in damages and penalties.
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