SPC Ardmona Industrial Dispute and its Impact on Employment Relations in Australia

Employment Relations 1
Running Head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Employment Relations

Employment Relations 2
Introduction
The purpose of the paper is discussing a recent industrial dispute that has impinged on
Employment relations in Australia namely the SPC Ardmona dispute. In general, SPC Ardmona
is an Australian-based company that got possessed by parent company Coca-Cola Amatil. SPC is
specialized in the packaging of the large fruit and this is the reason it actively owns and
maneuvers a canning factory in Shepparton and Kyabram. It experienced an industrial dispute
and that had badly influenced its working and functioning (Our Business n.d.).
Industrial Dispute
SPC Ardoma in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley experiences serious threat. In the words of
Peter Kelly, Managing Director, the company goes through severe problems and that came up as
a consequence of economic factors on an external basis. The hike in Australian Dollar that got
raised from the year 2009 to 2013 caused significant pressure to the company and the way it
carried out its operations. It altered the overflow of the cheap imported product that got traded in
Australia and lowers the production cost too. Due to this, the company’s export business
becomes wiped out.
Later on, the Productivity Commission also came out with their own verdicts that the
things go worst on account of high labor costs and allowances. It is being reported and witnessed
that the workers were compensated up to 58% and formed above award wage levels plus nine
weeks’ paid leave. The things get more of spoilt in a manner that the customers of the company
feel collided with (Fact file: Labour costs not to blame for SPC Ardmona's woes 2014).
This creates panic and trouble for the company to continue with its operations at its best.
The possible factors behind this particular industrial dispute were an outbreak of natural
calamities, availability of cheaper products, and loss of export market share. All these factors

Employment Relations 3
altogether slowdown the business operations and led to a reduction of the scale of operations.
There stays great necessity to focus on these areas in order to make out a better way.
The above-discussed factor produced a bottleneck for the company and impact its
working and functioning in the highest possible manner. Now, the company is really entangled in
a vicious circle and there does not seem to be a proper way to get out of it. The dispute passes
through odds and evens and that means a lot for the future of the company. SPC Ardoma asks for
a grant from the part of the government in order to get out of this terrible situation. Basically, it
requires to make business smoothly running and functioning (Price 2007, p. 541).
Finally, the dispute unfolded with the aim to make business consider innovation and to
make out niche market to mark a better move ahead. This seems to be the most significant step
that would back up the business and allow it to recover from such a trough situation. An
announcement from the Australian Stock Exchange in relation to the government and CCA’s
investments can be heard. It is being viewed that $100m will be right away put to work by our
business in order to impel new product and packaging innovation together with the competence
measures. Not only this, it gets an effective assistance from the part of the two renowned
universities, Melbourne and Latrobe to lend a hand to SPC Ardmona in its R&D and food-
technology needs. With this, the company would be able to sustain its presence for a long period
of time (Matthewson 2014).
This serves to be the perfect solution in making the situation under control and come
back to a perfect shape. SPC Ardoma goes through difficult times and that makes it feel pressure
from the part of the stakeholders being it inside or outside. It shows the way industrial dispute
greatly impacted the employment connections and looks forward to better management and
control as well (Hor 2009, p. 306).