“We were just fed up with the fact that they are constantly expanding and opening up new stores, and yet they are paying $5 and $10 below the minimum wage,” McCarthy said.

Big yikes. Important note: wage theft is not federally recognised as theft in Australia at present. Some states have laws recognising it as such, and the Albanese Government is currently working on laws to recognise it federally.

Right now, intentional wage theft might result in a fine that is a small fraction of the money that was actually stolen. The proposal is to make it a multiple of like 3–4x what was stolen, to truly discourage stealing people's wages.

“Mint My Desk notes however that any concerns raised by these employees should be done in a respectful and courteous manner."

But also:

"While employees said they had raised concerns since early 2022, Yu said she became aware of issues on Saturday."

Sounds like a year and a half of "respectful and courteous" failed to get the action that a few days of walkout did.

If you want your employees to be "respectful and courteous" you need to treat them with respect and courtesy. Full stop.

Me thinks a visit from the ATO is about to happen

The proliferation of Mint My Desk and Millionlife places is pretty insane. Seems like a Millionlife pops up wherever there's a bit of empty retail space.

I would say Mint My Desk has some cute stuff but have never thought it was amazing quality or anything.