The Buck Stops With Us: 7-Eleven

Editorial

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Editorial for The Australian based on “The buck stops with us: 7-Eleven”...............................3
Editorial for The Financial Review based on “7 Eleven Head Office involved in wage fraud
cover up”.....................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Editorial is defined as an article which is generally written by senior editorial staffs and
publishers of a magazine, newspaper or other written documents. It is divided into several parts
such as editorial related to information, interpretation, arguments, tributes, entertainment, mood
editorial, special occasions and many more. Editorials contain diverse set of information in
accordance with their requirements. This assignment is based on articles related to 7 Eleven,
which is an entity operating within retail sector, founded by Joe C Thompson, Gordon Cheung
and Cynthia Ma in year 1927. It is headquartered at Dallas, Texas, United State. The following
report consists of Editorials based upon 2 newspaper articles published in The Australian and
The Financial Review. The issues that have been highlighted in both the articles are
underpayment of wages to labour and falsification of payroll sheets which are both regarded as
fraudulent activities. Owing to both the issues going public among audience, the management of
7 Eleven is now required to devise solutions through which it can combat the declined goodwill
in market.
MAIN BODY
Editorial for The Australian based on “The buck stops with us: 7-Eleven”
The article reported by The Australian, emphasised on how the responsibility of 7-Eleven
wage fraud was taken up by the management of the organisation. The major areas of focus of this
publication was related to the corrective actions which the firm has been willing to take after the
overall backlash experienced by the company. Moreover, perspective of chairman were taken
into consideration regarding how he refused that the practices has been long going within the
company and under everyone's noses. Moreover, another crucial emphasis of the overall article
was on how the chairman is willing to pay up for what, according to him, was responsibility of
the franchisees.
The Australian promotes Public Welfare as well as rightful reporting for its readers
within the country. As per its Editorial Code of Conduct, its articles could be subjected to
specific stances (EDITORIAL CODE OF CONDUCT, 2019). Thus, a one-sided story was
published by the newspapers, surrounding the chairman's point of view on the whole scam.
Moreover, since only his perception was taken into account, the stance was quite positive with
respect to the actions willing to take by the firm to pay the workers in full.

Illustration 1: Australian Newspaper Readership, 12 months to June 2019
(Source: Australian Newspaper Readership, 12 months to June 2019, 2019)
There were no authenticate or quantifiable information present in the article, as its
readership scope is quite wide as reflected in the chart aboves, which might make it difficult for
it to include information that could be hard to be understood by several individuals. The whole
article revolves around the measures that the company claimed to be taking against the unethical
and fraudulent conduct of underpayment to labour force at work premises. Thus, its reporting
lacked a two-sided story as its governance standards emphasises on appropriate stance which
could be subjected to perspective of its reporters.
Editorial for The Financial Review based on “7 Eleven Head Office involved in wage fraud
cover up”
As per the article by The Financial Review, the situation of 7-Eleven is seen to be
worsening day by day as depicted by Fair Work Ombudsman. 60 per cent of a total of 20 stores
by September 2014 were found to be affected by payroll associated issues. This was double the
quantum of cases that were found during the year 2011. One of the most affected stakeholders by

this wage fraud were the overseas workers who only had the permission to work for a maximum
of 20 hours every week. The newspaper focuses on a clear financial projections to deliver an
actual state of affairs that could be backed up by a concrete data. It focuses on business practices
which are highly inclined towards being quantifiable. Furthermore, the article focussed upon the
ways in which organisational stakeholders could assist in combating with such an issue.
Differing from the perspectives of The Australian, it emphasises upon underpayment of wages to
staff in a very statistical manner. The notion that was put forward by the 7-eleven model was that
the only manner in which a franchisee can make a living was by way of ripping off of its staff.
This was opposed by the publication which depicted that employing international and young
student workers may not be essentially incorrect, instead it is an effective CSR initiative which
can be undertaken by any corporation. A complete two-way analysis was presented by AFR
which is totally in contrast to the perspectives presented by The Australian. While the latter
focuses on the ethical decision of chairman of the convenience stores, the former analysis the
unethical conduct which has been evident from years despite being acknowledged and reported
to the management. The vulnerability of the staff in this regard is high as their voice may not be
properly heard and as a result of it, company can take advantage of this to make more earning.
Furthermore, the analysis also pointed out segregation of the earnings currently being earned by
the firm and how some stores are likely to go bankrupt even if the money was paid the
franchisees. The analysis by AFR refutes that the firm was not aware of the employment system
happening within the franchisees. Thus, opposing the viewpoints of The Australian, the article by
The Financial Review emphasised that Irrespective of the frequent raids carried out in past 6
years, issues of underpayment of wages and falsification of payroll was not dealt well by the
company.
CONCLUSION
By analysing above mentioned editorials, it can be summarised that the articles and
editorials published within the newspapers are written in accordance with the audience that it is
targetting. Both the newspaper represents drastically different perspectives of the illegitimate
practices happening within 7-Eleven. While The Financial Review focuses more upon authentic
and reliable sources which are directly linked to the news, The Australian recognises the
importance of viewing the issue from a third party point of view. The same was seen in the case
of 7-Eleven wage fraud whereby the article in The Australian considered the view point of

management of the company while the article in The Financial Review covered news from a
generic point of view. Such wide focus is evident due to the differences in audiences, motives
and market on which the newspapers focus. As represented above, The Australian focuses on
ethical work frame and a wide set of audience, in contrast, the article by The Financial Review
depicts that it targets limited audience, interested in facts and figures to make their judgements
(ABOUT THE FINANCIAL REVIEW, 2019).
Thus, if an opinion is to be made on the basis of their findings, the analysis by The
Financial Review has been quite authenticated, as its viewpoint is supported by the facts and
current practices of the company. However, The Australian subjects its point of views based one
perspective of the management. Hence, the latter lacks an in depth approach while, each essential
aspect is covered by The Financial Review, which makes it a more just and effective assessment
of the scam of 7-Eleven.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Benton, N., 2017. Part of the Union. Australasian Leisure Management. (123). p.32.
Li, J. and et. al., 2016. Underpayment of wages and wage distortion in China: an empirical
assessment of the 2003–2008 period. Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy. 21(1).
pp.26-52.
Terry-Armstrong, N., 2016. 7-Eleven: A case study of a flawed franchise model. Busidate. 24(2).
p.8.
Winklemann, H., 2017. Professional services: Are your payslips and employee records in
order?. NSW Doctor, The. 9(6). p.26.
Online
ABOUT THE FINANCIAL REVIEW. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.afr.com/about-us>
Australian Newspaper Readership, 12 months to June 2019. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<http://www.roymorgan.com/industries/media/readership/newspaper-readership>
EDITORIAL CODE OF CONDUCT. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/editorial-code-of-conduct>