An education union official has accused fast food giant McDonald’s of paying its workers below award rates.

McDonald’s staff traded certain weekend and late night penalties for a higher base rate in negotiations three years ago.

The company and the union responsible for the staff say it is a better deal, but an officer at the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is claiming otherwise.

Josh Cullinan, NTEU senior industrial officer, has been looking at the situation for McDonald's workers in a personal capacity.

He has told ABC reporters that workers have been handed a “rotten deal”.

“We've got the actual rosters, the actual wages, the actual ages and even the names of these workers, and we're able to see that of 170, 107 of them are worse off to the tune of $1,000 a head and these are 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds,” he said.

“So there's no escape for the SDA (Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association) or for McDonald's.

“If they were open and honest about it, they could redact but release the rosters of every store and then we could see clearly and openly whether these workers are better off or not.

“At the moment the evidence makes it absolutely clear."

Mr Cullinan said workers received 6.6 per cent higher base rate in exchange for scrapped penalties.

“So a casual or an ongoing staff member who works a Sunday would ordinarily get 50 per cent, Saturday 25 per cent, night-time 10 or 15 per cent,” he said.

“Six per cent doesn't cut it when it comes to losing 50 per cent on a Sunday, especially if most of your hours are on a Sunday.”

The McDonald’s workers’ union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, has denied the claims.

SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer says the benefits of the deal outweigh the drawbacks.

“It'll vary from state to state, but it'll be bouncing there around 7, 8, in some cases 9 per cent. But that gap or that premium will actually increase because there are extremely solid wage increases locked in,” he told reporters.

“The workers, the work force overall is better off under the McDonald's agreement.

“The Fairfax story seeks to focus on selected individuals working specific shifts. But looking at the workforce as a whole, (they are) undoubtedly better off.”

McDonald’s has released a statement saying: “McDonald's Australia has always provided the best pay and conditions in our industry for our people.

“Our agreement provides a range of additional benefits that go above and beyond the Fast Food Award, including additional leave entitlements and guaranteed annual pay increases.

“Any inference that we 'under-pay' our people by having an Enterprise Agreement is simply wrong.

“McDonald's is open and transparent about our wage structure and working conditions; our Enterprise Agreement is freely available to everyone.”