Ethical Analysis of 7-Eleven: A Case Study on Wage Fraud and Media

This case study examines the ethical implications of wage fraud allegations against 7-Eleven, focusing on two articles presenting contrasting viewpoints. The first article reveals the underpayment issues in 7-Eleven stores in Australia, highlighting the company's alleged cover-up and exploitation of overseas students. It criticizes the company's unethical behavior and supports punitive measures. Conversely, the second article presents a supportive view of 7-Eleven, emphasizing the chairman's statements and downplaying the severity of the wage corruption issue. It is argued that this article fails to adequately address the company's unethical practices and instead attempts to shift blame to franchisees. The analysis underscores the importance of ethical business practices and the role of media in uncovering corporate misconduct. Desklib provides similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running head: 7-ELEVEN REVIEW
7-ELEVEN REVIEW
Name of the student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

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ARTICLE 1.
The aim of media is to reveal the actual facts so the readers can be aware what
actually is going on around them but some of media are inclined to support the unethical
behaviour of the powerful companies to serve their own interests. However, in the article ‘7-
Eleven head office involved in wage fraud cover- up’ written by Adele Ferguson, the readers
get a detailed the idea of underpayment problems in the 7-Eleven stores in Australia.
The initiative that the author has taken to reveal the actual incident is really praising.
The author does not support the unethical actions of the company. The media has conferred
the raids conducted in the stores of 7-Eleven by The Fair Work Ombudsman Australia for six
years and reveals wage abuse by the company. This article points out that 7-Eleven did not
pay penalty for violating the payment records. Despite the affect that the head quarter had
information about this unethical behaviour it did not take any step.
The view to not to support this immoral as well as illegal behaviour by 7-Eleven is
mandatory of the newspapers. The aggressive expression to the policies and illegal outlook to
exploit the overseas students can be seen in various media of the country (Tham, 2018). The
investigation of The Fairfax media has been detailed in this article to show evidences for
cheating of the company upon its employees, franchisees and the other stakeholders in order
to increase their profit. In one hand the company has utilising the workforce of the overseas
students by violating the visa acts of Australia and on the other hand, not maintaining the
payroll records to fraud the tax department also. The investigation has revealed that the
company has stated that their head quarter did not have any idea about this denigrating issues
which can never be believed by the readers of this article. 7-Eleven has stated that they had a
reliable relation with the franchisees who are responsible to pay the employees. Therefore,
the company is not responsible to be blamed of fraud payment to the employees. The author

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has presented the news in such a way that the readers get the actual news of the incident. she
has investigated herself and collected news from various level then contrasted these
ideologies to provide the actual concept (Afr.com 2018). However, the Australian
government has punished the company to back pay the exploited employees. She has
supported the view that the company has faced punitive measures for its unethical business
method and for further process she required interference of the political and administrative
leaders that no company can do such things again.
Therefore, it can be concluded that in this article the readers will get the actual
view of the scenario under which the foreign students are completed to work in this company.
The author has rightly pointed out the matters from various sources and analysed the matter
to state against this company. It is a very disappointing fact that the head quarter of the
company has tried hard to cover up this issue of duplicity by the franchisees. Hence it is
demanded that the market regulators intrude more engagingly so that this issue can gain more
popularity and the companies which are still involved in ethical breach can get punished by
the governments.
ARTICLE 2.
The issue of wage corruption has become one of the major problem in the Australian
labour market. This issue is important as this in one handed hampering the reputations of the
companies indulged in this type of business and on the other hand hampering the national
integrity of heritage. The article named ‘The bucks stops with us: 7-Eleven’ by Rachel
Baxendale has detailed the statements of the chairman of Russ Withers in support of the
company. From the very beginning of this article the author has taken a supporting aspect
which by no means reveal the actual situation or the accusation against 7-Eleven
(Theaustralian.com.au 2018). The article did not point out the evidences fraud against the

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company of exploiting the overseas students with underpayment and exploiting for months.
Therefore, this unethical behaviour of the company can never be supported as the author has
given 7-Eleven’s chairman the chance to promote only the good side of the company.
Each time the author has directly referred to the chairman and showed all the issues
were actually related with the franchisees. This article clearly shows that the company has
reached height through struggle for a long time. Now it does not want to hamper its
reputation in the foreign markets hence the company is ready to pay the employees the due
salaries to pretend to be good in the market. The author of the article, Rachel Baxendale has
supported the unethical behaviour of the company and presented his biased view of the whole
situation.
According to the investigation of ABC and Fairfax media, the company is closely
connected with this scam where the overseas students were employed to work in their stores
but were not aid full salary (Ferguson, 2015). In addition to this, it did not maintain the
payment records for so that nothing can be found in the investigation. The interview in the
article with the chairman reveals that the author supports the fact that the under payment
issue is quite small for the company hence they are ready to help their franchisees. In this
article, the author does not contrast the statement of the chairman with the investigation
report by ABC and Fairfax media revealing the actual incident. In addition to this, the ethics
of paying the employees properly which every company should practice, has not been shown
in the article. On the contrary, media this news article has covered the whole issue of scam
associated with employee payment. The unethical behaviour is completely covered and the
company has tried solely to shift the focus from the scam by blaming the franchisees of
Australia so that the customers do not see the shadowy business of well-reputed 7-Eleven.

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Therefore, it can be concluded that this eminent media article does not take the
ethical side of the business rather tries to cover the actions of the company where it does not
pay the students working in their stores. The complete section of the article has not revealed
the actual incident to disclose the actual matter. The news is presented in such a way that the
readers will feel that 7-Eleven is actually doing good for the victim employees to save the
reputation in the global market.

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References:
Abc.net.au. (2018). 7-Eleven cash-back scheme 'still alive and kicking', union claims.
Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-16/7-eleven-hunter-cash-back-
scheme-still-alive-union-says/7415940
Afr.com. (2018). 7-Eleven: Wage abuse claims puts scrutiny on Fair Work response.
Retrieved from http://www.afr.com/business/retail/fmcg/7eleven-wage-abuse-claims-
puts-scrutiny-on-fair-work-response-20150830-gjavxh
Ferguson, A. (2015). Revealed: How 7 Eleven is ripping off its workers. Retrieved from
https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2015/7-eleven-revealed/
Tham, J. (2018). 7-Eleven is the tip of the iceberg in worker exploitation. So who's turning a
blind eye? | Joo-Cheong Tham. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/12/7-eleven-is-the-tip-of-the-
iceberg-in-worker-exploitation-so-whos-turning-a-blind-eye
Theaustralian.com.au. (2018). Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery,
website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps. Retrieved from
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/the-buck-stops-with-us-says-
7eleven-chairman-russ-withers/news-story/c446f2f834f4b72748c630a0944ec6b4