BUSM1080 Employment Relation Essay

Introduction

Employment Relationship is regarded as an arrangement, whereby formal as well as informal regulations are formulated for assuring that entitlements of workers are addressed in effective manner by organizations. The underlying essay is aimed to address the aspect of employment relationship within the context of real world organization, which might have violated the employment relationship regulations in Australia. The main aim is to discuss the ways through which employees can adopt different approaches when their entitlements are being breached. 

The chosen organization is 7-Eleven which has been considered as one of the renowned business for operating retail franchises within Australia. The company is known widely for petrol and convenience retailing and within Australia it has won many awards for its excellence of franchising. Of significance is the franchise of the year award entitled by Franchise Council of Australia’s 2012. Fundamentally, the business is US based and in Australia it operates through licensing, where each franchisee is obliged to comply with workplace culture and policies of 7-Eleven. Fair Work Ombudsman has history of interactions with 7-Eeleven, as company has been continually alleged for underpayment of wages since 2008. Likewise, the company has also been alleged for keeping falsified record to modify the number of hours for workers to show that they are being paid more, than they are actually paid. The company has alleged for over exploiting international student, by making less payments than legal mandate of Australian fair hourly wages, along with denied overtime. The international students in Australia are mainly allowed to work for 20 hours per week, but store forces them to work for extra hours, by making payment for only 20 hours.  

Body 

The employee entitlements under worker’s protection act of states are considerable for assuring that any breach of entitlements can be reported for assuring protection of worker’s rights. In case of 7-Eleven’s underpayment and overexploitation of workers issue, the Fair Work Ombudsmen is of huge importance for assuring that no right of worker is being violated (Bamber et al., 2016). It has been highlighted from exploration of website of fair work that minimum hourly wage of workers in Australia is $18.93 (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2019). However, 7-Eleven is found to pay minimum of $10 to its international worker who has been migrated from less developed country and is working under the entitlements of student visa, which offers some restrictions on workers regarding working. The conduct of the employer can be considered as exploitation of vulnerable workers and thus it is seen as non-compliance with Fair Work Act regulations regarding employee wages and entitlements (Bishop and Cassidy, 2017). 

In order to address the issues regarding underpayment of wages, colleagues can be involved to identify whether there is any gap in their wage payment as well. The initial action can be taken by reporting to internal investigation unit of 7-Eleven, which is responsible for identifying any non-compliance to payroll policies of head office. However, it is notable from historical instances of 7-Eleven that company has mainly denied to admit the existence of issue related to underpayment and thus internal investigation might not work well in case of underlying issue. The Fair Work Act of 2009 has been applied for development of effective industrial relations system within Australia and it allows employees to state their work related objectives (Charlesworth and Macdonald, 2015). The Fair Work Act, its related awards and National Employment Standards all provide that it is core obligation of all small and large organizations that they employ staff and pay their entitlements in compliance with workplace regulations laid by the act (Thornthwaite, 2017). The main aspect of Fair Work Act which can allow to assure that issue of entitlement breach is settled with employer is to get engage the union and employer, under good faith bargaining (Stewart and Stanford, 2017). In this case, the affected employee can take case to Federal Government, under Fair Work Ombudsman and can claim for repayment of damages under the conditions of law. The fair work ombudsman helps in administering mediation between the employee and employer. The mediator’s role is mainly played by the union. The union plays important role for settling of workplace disputes as it can act as third party bargaining agent during negotiations and might help both employee and employer to reach on any reasonable agreement (Thornthwaite, 2017). In case of underpayment issue, union might make an effort to bargain the payment contract with the parties (7-Eleven franchisee owner and employee) with an aim of making sure that salary dispute can be settled. The good faith bargaining is core aspect of the act, which enables each party in contract to make sincere effort for addressing the underlying issue. The good faith bargaining will require that employee (who has been underpaid and overexploited at work) to clearly discloses all the information in front of management and union about the underpayment or exploitation at work (Charlesworth and Macdonald, 2015). The salary slips can be presented during negotiations as the proof of underpayment. The good faith bargaining is not only beneficial to engage all concerning parties in negotiations, but it is also highly important for assuring that any proposal might be made during negotiations, which could lead to resolution of issue at early stage (Rawling and Schofield-Georgeson, 2018). However, if the issue is not addressed during negotiations, then employee is available with option of filing a case under entitlement of Fair Work Act. 

Additionally, it is not necessary that under good faith negotiations, the issue of underpayment can be settled. In this case, the employee can take case for proceedings in Federal Circuit Court alleging, by mentioning about the violations of employer of Fair Work Act 2009 (Farbenblum and Berg, 2017). During the proceedings, it might be recognized that how much money is being owed by employer as result of underpayment of wages to employee. If the employee has worked for 2 years in 7-Eleven and has constantly been receiving low wages for the work done, then owed amount of money can be identified for that specific period, by making comparison of received hourly wage with minimum wages determined by Fair Work Act. Additionally, the cost effective strategy can be devised during these proceedings with an aim of assuring that un-received wages and entitlements can be recovered for employee in effective manner (Clibborn and Wright, 2018). Additionally, the legal actions can be initiated against 7-Eleven with an aim of assuring that they are being charged with unpaid wages and it is assured that no breach of Fair Work Act is witnessed by 7-Eleven in future (Clibborn, 2018). This method serves as an indirect way of involving management for resolution of underpayment issues and for receiving the due wages and entitlements by 7-Evelen. It is addressable that such act can not only enable victim employee to recover the unpaid wages, but it can also become beneficial for all employees of the specific organization, as company abides by violation of Fair Work regulations and all workers can receive their deserved entitlements (Charlesworth and Macdonald, 2015). Additionally, the issue of underpayment of wages is also considered as non-compliance with Commonwealth laws, which states that company is obliged to follow practices whereby rights of all workers are carefully addressed by the organization. The non-compliance with Commonwealth laws can also be addressed in addition to non-compliance with Fair Work Act. These allegations will bring substantial liability on 7-Eleven and thus company will be legally bound to repay the compromised wages of employee (Farbenblum and Berg, 2017). Therefore, based on these evidences it can be stated that employee (who is being under paid in 7-Eleven) of 7-Eleven is offered protection by legislations which could be used for demanding the rightful wages by the company. 

Conclusion 

The case of 7-Eleven could be regarded as significant instance of non-compliance and exploitation, whereby employee is not given the rightful wages and it more work is being demanded from employee at lower wages. However, it is considerable that worker is available with number of options through which non-compliance can be stated. For instance, the internal investigation unit might form the initial way of complaining the underpayment of wages to management, along with involvement of other colleagues. On the other hand, if the issue is not addressed in timely manner then involvement of union can be encouraged by reporting the issue to Fair Work Ombudsman. Fair Work Act of 2009 is considered as significant importance for assuring that worker’s entitlements are being addressed in substantial manner. The negotiations in good faith can be carried out with mediation of union and it can serve as the way of resolving the issue by reaching at most reasonable conclusion. However, if the negotiations cannot solve the issue the court proceedings can be demanded for charging the employer with owed wages and fining the employer for non-compliance with Commonwealth Laws and Fair Work Act 2009.