Regulations in Australian Employment Contracts: A Study of Wages and Hours

The content discusses employment relations and workplace laws. It highlights that wages and hours are major issues in employment contracts, with enterprise bargaining not being a common practice for 'best practice' but instead supporting the disintegration of working hours among part-timers and operational hours among whole-timers. The report also notes an extreme increase in wage disparity and inequality, with huge disparities in wage results within industries. The article concludes that employment relations are made whenever an individual sells their efforts to another individual or organization and is working on their own businesses. It emphasizes the importance of internal regulations over external laws, citing the need for deregulation to reduce outside rules and increase the significance of internal rules by businesses and managers.

Advanced studies in industrial relations
Assessment item 2
Report on the 7 Eleven case

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................3
Summary of the 7-Eleven inquiry............................................................................................................3
Why was inquiry done and what were the major findings.......................................................................3
Recommendations...................................................................................................................6
Critically analyse any gaps in the Australian ER system that this inquiry raises in regard to the role of
the state and the role of unions.................................................................................................................6
Restriction on Union Action.....................................................................................................9
Implications of the inquiry for the regulation of ER in Australia – not just 7 Eleven.............................9
References..............................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
This report explains the key features of employment relations system in the past 10 years in
Australia. There has been an existing system of collective bargaining among the unions and
states, which has been developing from the year 1980s.
As per the OECD report of 2009, the employee participation rate assesses the rate of working
age people which are economically active. This proportion of Australians has risen from
74.05% in the year 2002 to 75% in the year 2009 (Davies & Freedland, 2015). This rise has
been very less in the period of five years because there was much more for improving and
catching up with other advanced nations.
Summary of the 7-Eleven inquiry
In June 2014, the investigation by Fair Work Ombudsman started with an enquiry for
complaints of huge underpayment of wages and depiction of falsified environment records in
lots of Franchisee networks of 7-Eleven (Hannan & Hannan, 2017). It is a big convenience
retailer of Australia. This investigation was carried out for checking the complaint by
connected site inspections and also the inspection of the record keeping of around 20 stores
which were taken as samples. This investigation had different enquiries of 7–Eleven stores.
This investigation suggested that franchisees had made false and misleading records for
satisfying the audits and salary principles and they were underpaying the staffs.
Why was inquiry done and what were the major findings
The study was done because from 2008, there was continuous reporting from workers who
alleged that there was huge underpayment of wages. The important matter was that there was
rising proof of underpayment connected to fraudulent records. Specifically, it was seen that

employers were lessening the number of hours as devoted by the staff members to record as if
they were paid higher salaries then their actual wages.
In 2008 and 2009, there were dozens of audits carried out by FWO for the convenience stores
of Sydney and Melbourne (Forsyth, 2017). The results of such investigations showed that
Sydney is convenient store at over
In Melbourne, investigation revealed that there were approximately AU$112,000 in wages
recovered for 88 workers at five convenience stores. One of the stores was given instructions
to credit around thousand hours of their yearly leaves back to 12 permanent employees who
were not using their leave entitlements.
The chief concern recognized in the audits was underpayment of price rates for weekends and
night shiftwork (Adele Ferguson, 2017). Although the substantiation did not imply the double
hour’s system was general, the FWO recorded with concern that a lot of underpaid personnel
were youthful worldwide students and mainly exposed to mistreatment.
As per the enquiry, there was this huge employee exploitation carried out by the business. It
was a fraud in case of wages. There had been falsified timesheets and roasters and this
instant to be unlawful and fraudulent activity. It was seen that more than 69% of the outlets of
the business had issues related to the payroll compliances along with fraudulent activities
with respect to time rosters and records in single month only (Danckert, 2017).
It was also seen that around six weeks had passed away in a few staff members were not even
paid and also many were underpaid along with the Melbourne-based franchisee with holding
the passport and driving license of employee’s. Generally the exploited individuals for
students who had been on a student visa to Australia (Fusco, 2010).
It was important to carry out an inquiry because it permits to glance further largely for
recognizing the root causes. Enforcement act, together with court case, is only one part of the
examination method (Kramer, 2016). The general method looks forward to set up drivers of

non-compliance and recommend suggestions looked forward to sustainable agreement, on the
element of the topic of the investigation and ahead.
As per the fair works act, one can always investigate into any activity or exercise that might
be in contradiction to the act, affair was entity or protection net contractual entitlements
("Employment and Workplace Relations", 2017). Therefore this kind of enquiry was carried
out for identifying if the basis of allegations phone were of any grave non-compliance within
the outlets. In case these allegations were serious then:
- What would be the factors which led to non-compliant activities?
- Was there anything in disguise, and if yes how?
- How could it be revealed and who was accountable for it?
In case any lawyer is unable to maintain the records under the FWA regulations then he can
be imposed a penalty and issued an infringement notice. The highest penalty for such
contraventions is usually lesser than the penalty for inability to abide by which obligations
("Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website", 2017). Also creation of misleading,
fraudulent or falsified records is a grave non-compliant attitude. It is so serious because it is
carried out intentionally and it can also cover all other contraventions.
It was also seen in the case of 7–Eleven that the culture of acceptance of lower wage rate
was there. And most of the employees were aware of their underpayment. It was the work
culture and they were allowed to work more than what was allowed as per their Visa
requirements. Even the workers who did not like this kind of culture were asked to quit and
resigned from the job. There was a sense of loyalty when the workers did not complain about
their bosses.
The Australian workplace laws lay down the responsibility of employers for providing the
worker entitlements (Rathmell, 2011). Looking at these laws, the franchisor is not directly
liable for the workers of the business. The FW Act lays down the way in which legal duties

and rights of employment relationship lie with the worker and the employer. But this also
allows the expansion of liability for contraventions of the place of roles to individuals who
are used for such contraventions.
Recommendations
There were serious non-compliances happened wherein FWO could not find out any remedy.
There were different factors which contributed to the non-compliance and series of non-
compliance led to huge investigations. Dealing with the workplace relations non-compliance
for the visa holders is a preference for the FWO (Eldor & Vigoda-Gadot, 2015). In the given
situation, the grave and intentional breach is could not be eradicated. Therefore for this
report it is recommended that FWO targets this company and sets different regulatory
frameworks for various companies which are part of franchising groups so that the social and
communal regulations are met with provision of fair, equal and protected job opportunities
for each and every worker. There can be implementation of effective governance systems so
that:
- all the related Commonwealth rules and regulations are abided with respect to line
management responsibilities (Forsyth, 2016),
- creation of verifiable and transparent payroll arrangements, understanding of
franchisees, third-party suppliers and workers,
- procedures of identification,
- escalation and addressing of possible non-compliances,
- Review of operational models so that workplace laws are achieved.

Critically analyse any gaps in the Australian ER system that this inquiry raises in
regard to the role of the state and the role of unions.
The employee relations refer to entire relation among employer and the staff members with
respect to setting up of terms of employment (Ganopolsky, 2006). Although previously, the
term Industrial Relations was utilised for describing this relation but now it has been
substituted by a bigger term known as 'workplace relations'. Even though the two areas are
same, Industrial Relations is generally concerned with the solution of conflicts among
employees and employers. With respect to employee relations, employee is an asset and not
the cost therefore two-way communication has to be developed with the goal-oriented
approach.
The employee relations are not only concerned with the workers’ salaries and conditions
rather it is the procedure by which these terms of employment are decided (Advanced
workers compensation, 1999).
In some manner, the Workplace Relations Act 1996 was just created as per the groundwork of
reform initiated previously by the Labour Party however the active application of legal rules
to individualise the employment relation symbolizes a fresh point in Australian labour law (A
guide to employers' rights in relation to industrial action, freedom of association and right of
entry, 1998). The impact of rules focussed to deregulate the labour market has been usually
discreet and usually was unsuccessful to match their guarantee. The chief results can be
reviewed as be:
- The mainly straightforward impact has been to formalise and partially expand
disintegrated bargaining.
- In 1989 around 23% of places of work had a kind of enterprise contract; by 1995 this has
increased to 35% (Azizul Islam & Jain, 2013). At the present Lot of contracts are

rubberstamped and get little inspection, only some totally substitute rewards and several
are 'model contracts'. The models are laid usually by employers the same as they are by
unions. Rather than the outbreak of ground-breaking contracts, alliance at place of work
and flexibility assured by supporters of deregulation, the alterations they have initiated
have simply caused a revival of unilateral managerial influence, a tapering of bargaining
pre-engaged with problems relating to hours of employment and increasing wage
disparity.
The set up of reconciliation and mediation arrangements promoted the quick development of
Australian unions and, less importantly, employer alliances. By 1921, around 50% of the
Australian labour force was a part of union/s. Density of the Australian union has altered
from this time – reducing to 40% for the period of the 1930s and subsequently increasing
once more to the maximum of 65% in 1953 (Australian master workplace relations guide,
2009). Union density in Australia has been reducing gradually over the precedent 30 years. In
1990, the union density had been 49% of the whole staffs and in the year 2016, it was 12.5%.
There was centralised wage system which was reinstalled after 1981-82 wages blast. There
had been a really switch off policy by the Fraser government and a centralised wage freezing
was initiated by the commission in 1982. After the election of Australian Labour Party (ALP)
in 1983, there was a reason to introduction of centralised wage indexes. As per the price and
income contract between the Australian Council of trade unions and ALP, the trade unions
approve of making "none additional claims quote for the real wage when tennis court over
time in ", arises in social wages and inclusion of unions in making strategies. The lack of an
approach for incorporating the wage creation into macroeconomic strategy was there. The
Labour government try to utilise expended financial and monetary policies for promoting
investments, development and employment devoid of any union-based inflationary wages
web. There was the use of arbitration institutions for regulating the wages and in the

beginning the page draft had been in range of 1.5% to 2.5% with lesser industrial disputes.
Therefore the loss of working days due to this dispute was decreased to 228 days, which had
been 797 days per thousand employees, earlier. Also it brought the cream placement of job
creation target of 500,000 fresh jobs in the next six months by the beginning of November
1985 (De Cocker, Duncan, Short, van Uffelen & Vandelanotte, 2014).
Restriction on Union Action
Industrial action will be safeguarded only when it happens at some stage in a bargaining
phase and is suggested by lots of workers in an undisclosed survey. Industrial action
supporting an industry contract like model bargaining or beyond the good faith bargaining
won’t be secure. Additionally, employers are permitted to go instantly to court, without any
AIRC certificate, if they experience any risky industrial action
Implications of the inquiry for the regulation of ER in Australia – not just 7 Eleven
Australian Employment relationship system provides with safety of a few of the minimum
terms and conditions of employment and various Rights and duties linked with the place of
work. There are radius of climate legislation is that have you factored work this all over
Australia. Along with every employment act which is applicable, there are various acts in
every state and central government which safeguards individuals from any kind of
discrimination. Each state government has different acts.
Within Australia external regulations are of many kinds. The industrial tribunals arrangement
is perhaps the highly seen and again on. Moreover there are different state and federal
regulations which control the features of employment and organisations like equal
employment opportunity and non-discrimination in jobs. The major perception of external
laws is of regulatory laws, this can also be voluntary. The multi – employer systems like
occupation based wage rates or industry based wage rates are some of the exclusive and

useful regulations. The training systems like apprenticeship at work can also have informal
and formal exteriorly created laws which regulate the factors of workplace acts.
Wages and hours are the leading problems in employment contracts: enterprise bargaining
has not, usually speaking, been applied as a medium for 'best practice' yet as a substitute has
supported and established the disintegration of working hours among part-timers and the
time-span of operational hours among whole-timers.
The other main impact is an extremely quick expansion in wage disparity and inequality.
workforce on reward rates, incapable to negotiate business agreements, have got 1-2 %
yearly, workforce included by enterprise contracts have experienced their wages increase 4-
6% and those included under the individual agreements have got somewhere among 0-8%
yearly. In the collective agreements segment, there are huge disparities in wage results too.
Wages expansion in a few industries like mining and construction has noticeably out-rated
different industries like the hospitality and retail. Wages disparity is happening inside
industries too.
Conclusion
Employment relation is made whenever an individual sales his efforts to any other individual
or organisation and is working on his or businesses Bihar. This employment relation has two
major steps which are the marketing transactions and product relationship. This Report
considers the employment relations to be the powerful way of dealing with it increasing
efficiency of the business, industry and country.
The inner scope of the law can also be informal and formal and the highly known and clear
formal regulations seen and businesses are the regulations and processes which are created by
the management and documented in the staff manuals. These lay down their obligations and

Rights and also manage the issues like grievance handling and processes of employee
disciplines. When these issues are not documented and the rules are not related then
generally the employers unilaterally decide about the issue just like any other practice of
management (Lydall, 2008). The rules and regulations of businesses can also be created on
the mutual understanding of employers, workers and unions. These regulations can be
extremely informal and just prevalent on the kind of practices and Customs followed. This
can also be quiet formal like the negotiation of enterprise contracts and registration under the
workplace relations act. Specifically negotiating contracts are one more sample of rising
significance of internal formal laws.
The supporters of the regulation look forward to raise the importance of inner regulations at
the cost of external modes. As per this arrangement the managers decide about the
regulations and they can do so unilaterally or after consulting the workers. The regulations
which arise from all of the business are dumb to be insensitive to the specific requirements
and are observed as inefficient. Under the regulation, it is not suggested anywhere that the
loss created by managers have to be eliminated. In case any of the rule is inevitable and there
is a need for Amendment then the rules can be changed. So it can be said that deregulation is
a need for less outsiders’ rules and therefore increase in significance of inner rules by the
business and business managers.
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