Photo: an anonymous informant

[Consumerwide_ HueSoung, Jun Reporter / Yohan, Bok Reporter] Recently, there was a disgraceful incident with customers at the Nobrandburger, Shinsegae-food. Not only mistaking the food order, furthermore, their staff responded to the customer impatiently by saying "...When you rush, your food is even later..." (I interpreted it as the staff communicating a disadvantage the customer might get.). Besides, he was raising his voice while seeming to show his temper, which scene you would never see in any burger franchise store in Korea.

Regarding the situation, Shinsegae-food read the situation that many orders have occurred in such a short time while the franchise was lacking staffs. (please refer to the related reports.) Some says that the welfare system for Nobrandburger staff is insufficient, while the hourly wage is limited. If Nobrandburger paid more and/or provided timely welfare benefits for the staff, not only the quality of the food product but also general customer service would improve.

We checked with a Nobrandburger staff member on the hourly wage. It's 9620 won, which is the same for McDonald’s and BurgerKing. Nevertheless, even if we exclude the wage issues, there is not much welfare for the Nobrandburger staff. A Nobrandburger staff member said during an interview with Consumerwide, "As far as I know, there is no welfare benefit, but only the hourly wages. I haven't got any training for customers either while working here."  Then, what'd be the working environment of McDonald’s and BurgerKing, which are the competitive businesses of Nobrandburger? They have also employed part-time/temporary workers.

First of all, McDonald’s has a cooking crew who takes care of orders and frying chips while preparing drinks and desserts. Another crew wraps burgers and makes other fries. Riders are in charge of delivery. The hourly wage is 9629 won national minimum wage, which is the same for Nobrandburger crews. Besides, because of the holiday pay, regular crews get an average of 11544 won for an hour's work. Plus, they are supporting crews with various welfare benefits based on their belief of 'having a focus on people (workers)'.

In 2018, they've been facilitating a program, ‘Work-study simultaneous holding system in connection with Universities' for the staff. Currently, 4 domestic distance study institutes (univ.) are cooperating with McDonald’s for an education-industry partnership program, which supports staff with various benefits, such as exempting or discounting the admission and commission fees. This program aims for staff in business to continue in their education, which might level them up academically as well career wise in the field of the dining-out industry. In addition, based on the labor standards act, they are paying for overtime/special-time work while carrying on the regular medical examination. Staff are offered the 4 major insurance when they're in the right condition.

Besides, McDonald’s is trying to support the staff by providing staff-exclusive benefits; starting from family occasion support, discount benefits through an 'Extreme discount mall' where they can purchase 1500 kinds of product (large home appliances and glossaries) in special deal, Mc-family coupon which offers all the McDonald’s menus in a discounted price, and Apple product discounts. Having all these systems in the background, there is not such a case of a crew working on their own at the McDonald’s store. There is always a manager, who is fully responsible for the store, and a number of crew are working. A McDonald’s person said, "Our crew are working with pride. We are trying our best to give the highest service for our customers."

BurgerKing is also employing part-time workers who take care of the store management, counter, kitchen, food sanitation guidance and administration tasks. The work hour is 40 hours/ 5days a week. Welfare benefits are family occasion time-out, giving family occasions, use of a hotel belonging to a company, funeral leave, funeral service, giving monthly welfare expenses, and gifts on national holidays and birthdays.

In the franchise brand, employment and management of the temporary staff are significant. Because those staff are also their customers. Brands without good welfare, just like Nobrandburger, won't be easy to hire any staff. Surely everyone would want to work for a brand where they give away various welfare benefits. As much as it gets difficult to hire a staff, this will frequently happen when a staff is left out alone with tons of customers being chased by time pressure. He won't be able to handle it. It is impossible to expect quality customer service while he is left out with all these tasks. I see them as 'Ue-bul-seong-seol', an illogical argument.

Nobrandburger seems to me busy expanding the number of chains. As much as a business is scaled up, they got to be mature in the customer service area. Hence, I would say they need qualified staff before anything else. Rise and fall (Heung-mang-seong-soe) is up to a man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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