Approach for Resolving Underpayment Issues at 7-Eleven

EMPLOYEE AND LABOUR
RELATIONS

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Approach that can be taken........................................................................................................1
Approach for involving management, unions and colleagues...................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................3

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Introduction
The case of 7-Eleven suggests that there are people from different parts of the world who
were influenced by the scam done in the company. Underpayment is a serious issue in any
part of the world in any condition. In the Australian working environment, this is the biggest
challenge that companies had to face (Smh, 2015). Company took the advantage of the
situations in which different employees were working. Most of them faced immigration
issues and hence companies official also threatened them that if they do not hear them then
they will be sent back home. By threatening the employees, they were kept away from the
entitlements and they have bypassed normal regulatory standards such as Fair Work Act
2009. This was done in the planned manner as when the raids were conducted it was seen that
there were many malicious papers, store reviews were incorrect, there were some explosive
documents related to payroll compliances from the head office, doctored time sheets and
roasters were also present (Toscano, 2019). It was also seen that the store financials did not
have appropriate wage bills. Many of the people were not given payments even when they
worked for hours within the firm and when they asked for it they were threatened to send
them back to their home (Feguson, 2017). This was the major reason why no one was playing
the role of whistle blower. But when the fraud came out a serious charges were noted against
the firm and the compensations were announced for them. The nature of issue is that the
rights of the employee have been compromised.
Approach that can be taken
In spite of the fact that Australian laws for employment is strong and protects people from
any kinds of frauds, it was the lack of the system that did allow the people to speak for them.
As an employee the approach that could be taken here is to report it in front of the labour
bureau for registering their complaint against the organisations. Since most of the people that
faced such issues at 7-Eleven were from the Asian region hence the first complaint should
have been registered at the International Organisation for Migration (Bray and Stewart,
2013). This is because the Visa that they have been provided in Australia would have lapsed
if the employees did not follow the working timing regulations like in the case of Newlywed
Sam who did overtime and worked for approx. 18 hours. Since these people themselves
breached the visa norms hence their case becomes weak. The Fair work Act 2009 could have
helped the company in attaining their motives especially in terms of hiring employees and