Unite's national director Mike Treen said it was a giant step forward for the industry.

'Restaurant Brands is a public company, and I think that they recognised New Zealand society has moved on; that it's no longer acceptable in 21st century New Zealand for this type of contract to exist, so they're looking for a way to move with the times.'

The Unite Union is now setting its sights on other major fast food chains. It will mount a campaign to try to convince McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's to end zero hour contracts.

'It is time for New Zealanders to tell these profitable multi-national chains that they need to stop taking advantage of their often young and vulnerable workers and put an end to a labour practice that the people of New Zealand have made clear they find unacceptable,' said Mr Treen.

The National Business Review, citing industry sources, has reported that more Mad Butcher stores are in financial difficulty, which chief executive Michael Morton last week called "grossly inaccurate".

In February, Veritas reported a 16 per cent decline in first-half profit to $1.7 million as acquisition costs mounted during a buying spree, and warned annual earnings may be at the low end of guidance depending on how its new businesses perform.

Revenue jumped 89 per cent to $27.4 million. Of that, the Mad Butcher business lifted revenue 14 percent to $16.6 million.

Fast food fans are salivating over the prospect of Taco Bell opening in New Zealand, but the rumours could yet prove to be a tantalising hoax.

A Taco Bell-branded sign has popped up in the Auckland inner-city suburb of Ponsonby, reading "because Ponsonby Road needs another Mexican restaurant".

The fast food franchise, known for its sardonic humour, is apparently referencing the fact that the popular dining strip is already home to Mexicali Fresh, Mexico, and Mad Mex.

Taco Bell could not be reached for comment, and it is not yet clear whether any other company has franchise rights in New Zealand.

Dean Smith is in trouble again in Wellington with a franchisee wanting his investment returned. Dennis Krishan bought a Mr Green franchise from Smith's company in November for $21,000. Krishan claims he is now owed $3000 for cleaning work and had spent $2000 on legal fees.

The company, Mr Green Property Management Ltd, which was struck off the companies register on January 28, supplied equipment and a list of customers who paid Krishan directly.

Julian Smith said his brother was embroiled in a "couple" of disputes in Wellington but overall franchisees were happy. His brother retained his confidence and had just "bitten off more than he can chew".

MRH general manager Nathan Bonney said the company's "tried and tested" franchise support and management team could be rolled out to other brands.

There is a real opportunity here to drive and support growth for both brands.'

The locally owned and operated Burger Wisconsin pioneered gourmet burgers in New Zealand, with combinations such as avocado and bacon and camembert and cranberry.

It now has 22 stores throughout the country, all of which are run by local franchisees.

Mexicali Fresh was founded by John and Cindy Buell, who moved to New Zealand in 2005 after running Mexican restaurants in the United States. It has 11 stores in the Auckland region (soon to be 12).

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in December sued Emstar Pizza Inc., which operates seven Papa John’s franchise locations in Brooklyn and Queens, alleging that Emstar underreported hours worked by employees over the past six years, rounded employee hours down to the nearest hour, and did not pay overtime.

Attorney General Schneiderman is also considering legal action against the franchisor, Papa John’s International Inc., on the theory that it is a joint employer and thus liable for the actions of its franchisees, according to reporting from the New York Post.

The National Labor Relations Board in July ruled McDonald’s a joint employer and thus liable for labor or wage violations at its franchise locations in a first-of-its-kind decision that represents a significant victory for workers’ rights advocates. Corporations like Papa John’s and McDonald’s employ about two-thirds of the low-wage workers in this country, but have so far mostly avoided liability for the illegal actions of their franchise owners under the theory that, despite sharing a common corporate brand, each franchise is independently owned and operated.

Robert Passikoff is the founder and president of New York-based Brand Keys Inc., a consultancy that seeks to predict consumer behavior trends and brand engagement. He questioned McDonald’s brand research in a recent article.

"If Google’s slogan is ‘Do no evil,’ McDonald’s unofficial corporate slogan seems to have been ‘We can do that, too,’” he said.

As part of its Loyalty Leaders list, Brand Keys asked 1,000 consumers in each of three generations, boomers, Gen X and millennials, about fast-food and fast-casual restaurants. Conducted in late 2014, the survey found recent declines reported by McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell mirrored the downward loyalty shifts seen in the survey’s results.

Brand Keys’ research contained a few other McNuggets: a 20 percent year-over-year decrease in fast-food visitation among millennials (down 18 percent among baby boomers), 42 percent of surveyed millennials increased visits to fast-casual restaurants and 53 percent called McDonald’s offerings “dollar food”—not a compliment.

“They’re not necessarily suggesting that it’s good because it’s cheap,” he said. “Millennials are looking for value. Even if they don’t have a lot of money, they’re still looking for value.”

Ms Read carried on trading in the oven cleaning business in her former territory following termination, again a fact she did not deny. Ms Read (who appeared in person at the hearing) admitted to the judge that she wanted to carry on trading in her former territory as it had taken 18 months to build up the business within that area and she would have to start again if she was prohibited from working in that territory. 

As the judge pointed out, Ms Read was openly admitting that she used her franchise business as a springboard to set up her own, competing business which is precisely what restrictive covenants are designed to prevent and it is the goodwill in the franchisee's territory that a franchisor is entitled to protect.

His lawyers Lane Neave say under the franchise agreement, Thomas was supposed to receive two weeks' training, during which he would be paid by MGC, and MGC was supposed to provide a list of customers that would return about $1000 a week initially.

The business was supposed to start on September 25 but no training and no customers came in the first few weeks.

Thomas said he began to worry and Smith was increasingly more difficult to contact.

When he did talk with Smith, he "was always promising something would happen next week."

Masterton employment lawyer Jills Angus Burney said she had received information that Lucas had been forced to sell by Gull and Night 'n Day after boycott calls.

"He has been required to relinquish his franchise because the parties to the franchise are unhappy with the financial impact of the publicity around the illegal deductions."

Night 'n Day chief executive Tony Allison denied forcing Lucas to sell. "I wouldn't say we brought it about, I'd say Nick brought it about . . . Nick came to his own conclusions."

Allison conceded the bad publicity had affected sales nationally, but said it was too soon to blame anyone, as an investigation was still under way.

One of Aviva's loan recipients, a beneficiary, paid $8000 over 18 months to rent a "substantial" list of household items from Mr Rental in Blenheim Rd, she said.

"I believe she [thought] it was a rent-to-buy situation. Yes, it's consumer responsibility but what if [people] don't understand the language? I genuinely think the option to rent is good for some circumstances [but] whose responsibility is it to say, 'How long do you want it for?'

'At the company's annual meeting in Auckland yesterday, chairman Mark Darrow said the Veritas board would investigate a buy-back as part of a review of its capital structure early next year. Shares in Veritas last traded at $1.25, below the $1.30 price it listed at after buying the Mad Butcher chain in May last year.'

In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange this afternoon, RFG said the share purchase agreement (SPA) for the La Porchetta deal has been terminated but discussions are continuing.

“The SPA was subject to a number of conditions, including satisfactory completion of the company’s due diligence investigations,” said RFG.

“RFG advises that the foregoing condition has been satisfied, and as a consequence, the SPA has been terminated.”

“Notwithstanding the forgoing, RRG is presenting engaging with the La Porchetta vendors in connection with those matters which have influenced the above outcome, and will keep the market advised of any future developments.”

The decision by Buddle Findlay to act for MPM while still acting for Mike Pero in Christchurch was first challenged by Pero back in June, he said.

"I raised the conflict of interest immediately when I heard they had decided to act for and against me. I thought from the beginning they could not possibly be serious.

"I spent weeks trying to persuade Buddle Findlay against what I considered to be unethical," he said.

'Group Operating Revenue was up 27.1 percent to $8.5M with BurgerFuel Total System Sales up 29.4 percent to a record $38.6M for the 6-month period. System sales growth continues and BurgerFuel rolling weekly system sales are now in excess of $1.5M per week.

'... although the IAC mentioned above requires Immigration officers to consider each case “holistically” – looking for instance at the size of the operation, the organisation of the branch where the applicant works and so on – to decide how much responsibility they actually have, in fact we see them focusing on ticking off the Core Tasks of the job (according to ANZSCO) as not being performed by the applicant, even though the person actually exercises considerable skill to run a department of a large store.  We therefore see the ludicrous situation that someone who manages a High Street clothing shop with 2 other staff will be approved Residence, while another person with 20 staff to run, who is required to apply the complex policies of a division of a department store, will be declined.

Why is this situation so fatal?  Well, according to immigration Policy the ANZSCO is a Bible which lists every job that exists.  In the Skilled Migrant system, your job has to match some occupation on the ANZSCO.  In the case of retail, you are either  a Retail Manager – which is “skilled employment” and gets you points toward Residence – or you are a Retail Supervisor who runs a team of staff and whose job is not skilled enough, so you don’t get points.  And in almost all cases you must have skilled employment before they will give you Residence. In many cases whole application fail on this point alone.'

Shingle Inn currently operates a network of over 45 cafés across Australia. Now the award-winning franchise is inviting Kiwis to join the family and embrace the culture and tradition that have become part of the quintessential Shingle Inn café experience.