Social media pages for the cause, coined Mint My Desk Workers United, have outlined the staff’s three demands: pay, back pay, and payslips.

Louisa McCarthy, a member of Mint Workers United and staff member from the Old Myer Centre and Garden City stores in Brisbane, explained that according to their calculations, some workers are losing between $200-$500 per week.

She continued, claiming that the company is constantly opening new stores.

“Clearly they’ve got priorities and it’s certainly not about, you know, looking after the staff or even paying them what we’re entitled to.”

Screenshots between an employee who wishes to remain anonymous and their boss from last month reveal that Mint My Desk/Millionlife are allegedly too “understaffed” to provide employees with payslips.
The anonymous employee had reached out prior to these texts regarding payroll issues, which they claim hadn’t been addressed.

Most staff members at the company are casual students, according to Ms McCarthy, and receive an envelope with their name on it containing their pay in cash.

“It’s probably the same in so many retail places and hospitality,” Ms McCarthy continued, mentioning that another reason they went public with their action was to tell others in the same boat, “here’s what you can do”.

“I don’t have to say it for people to know it, but rent is so high, the cost of groceries, so high, and then this company won’t even pay like $20 to some of its employees an hour,” she continued.

The company has provided a statement, saying it is working to address employees’ concerns.
“Mint My Desk (MMD) is an employer which takes its legal obligations to its employees most seriously. It is in that context that MMD notes that one or more of its employees have raised concerns about alleged employment practices,” the statement read.

“MMD appreciates that concerns have been raised, and they continue to be urgently considered. MMD notes however that any concerns raised by these employees should be done in a respectful and courteous manner.

“MMD is committed to trying to work through any live issues collaboratively with the employees, and trust that the employees will do the same when communicating with MMD or about MMD publicly. 

“If there have been any mistakes made, then they will be urgently rectified. MMD has approached and will continue to discuss the issue with its employees and seek to resolve them.”

The snap rally, which took place in King George Square on Saturday morning, was a “culmination of many attempts to resolve this in the workplace”.

Ms McCarthy told news.com.au that after many conversations, the Brisbane staff decided to have meetings and submitted a signed log of claims to their bosses prior to the strike.

Now, in the aftermath of the rally, support has been rolling in for the Mint My Desk and Millionlife employees.

“Since doing this public action, I’ve been getting messages from, you know, current employees, previous employees, who have sent me just a myriad of evidence showing the conversations they’ve had with the bosses,” she told news.com.au.

Support for the cause has flooded in on social media, too, and has even travelled to the google reviews of the company.

“You should really pay your workers what they are legally entitled to,” one person commented in the review section for one Brisbane store, giving it one star.

“Pay minimum wage to your workers please,” another commented, posting a photo of a ‘workers on strike’ poster.

Holly Booth, who uses she/they pronouns, runs the Millionlife TikTok account, and expressed their frustration in a personal TikTok video.

“Our love for the job does not justify us being underpaid,” they said in their video, adding that the stores make thousands per day and are “well capable” of paying staff legal rates.

“Our bosses drive sports cars, go on luxury vacations, and yet a lot of the workers cannot afford to live,” Booth, who has worked at the company since May of 2021, continued.

“We are being taken advantage of, and we are sick of it,” they said, noting that they’ll likely lose their job for speaking out on the issue.

Booth added that they earn $24 an hour as a store manager, while they should be paid $32 based on minimum wage,

“I make a lot for a worker in this company,” they added, mentioning that other workers make as little as $18 or $19 an hour.

The call for action comes as a new bill targeting wage theft is set to be introduced to parliament today.

Up to 10 years of imprisonment, as well maximum fines of $7.8 million – or three times the amount that was underpaid, if that amount exceeds the maximum fine – could apply for employers committing intentional wage theft.

Tony Burke, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, explained the new legislation on ABC Insiders with David Speers.

“The objective here is not to send people to gaol, the objective is to make sure that people are paid properly,” he said.