BUS301: Newspaper Editorials on 7-Eleven Wage Fraud in Australia

This report analyzes two newspaper editorials concerning the 7-Eleven wage fraud scandal in Australia. The editorials, sourced from the Financial Review and The Australian, present differing perspectives on the incident. The Financial Review editorial highlights the financial implications, ineffectiveness of the Fair Work movement, and the extent of wage fraud, emphasizing the vulnerability of visa workers and the resulting economic disturbances. The Australian's editorial focuses on 7-Eleven's response, particularly the chairperson's commitment to refunding underpaid workers and addressing franchisee responsibilities. The analysis considers the distinct styles, target audiences, and business focuses of each newspaper. The conclusion discusses how the editorials reflect broader issues like ethical standards, stakeholder treatment, and the balance between business profit and employee welfare. It also addresses the roles of management, governance, and relevant laws in the context of this wage fraud case.

Running Head: NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS ON 7- ELVIN WAGE FRAUD
Newspaper Editorials on 7- Elvin Wage Fraud
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS ON 7- ELVIN WAGE FRAUD
The incident of 7- Eleven is a big issue that occurred in Australia, which states the
poor condition of the young employees, as they were not being paid rightfully for then efforts
that they were exerting for the company. Many employees were on visas and they were not
being paid the amount that they deserved. The Fairfax media conducted a conference meeting
with the chairperson of the 7-Eleven and found out the reasons and remedies for the incident.
The study will also include the financial situations of that time and the outcomes that
occurred after the incident and the action that was taken by the head office of 7-Eleven. There
are the two editorials Financial Review and The Australian which gives an elaborative picture
about the incident.
According to financial review newspaper, 7-Eleven was one of the biggest store
chain that was convenient for all the customers that availed their services. The company has
been able to cater the requirements of the customers. Their case of organized wage abuse has
also been added to their brand name. There were 1.3 million of laborers in Australia were
on visas, this gave rise to many economic disturbances, this ruined the Australian taxation
system, which caused them loss of hundreds of millions of dollars tax in a year (MYERS,
2019). During 7-Eleven incident, many Australian workers were students who only had their
visas and were allowed to work of 20 hours in a week this increased the vulnerability to
abuse. The Fair Work Ombudsman has been conducted and findings of 6 years reflects the
increasing rates towards of labour abuse (Danckert, 2019). The movement also discovered
that 60% of the stores had severe payroll issues. The survey revealed that from 13 October to
9th November there were many stores that made workers work without paying them what they
deserved. Several raids were also conducted which ensured that the ineffectiveness of the Fair
Work movement (Ferguson, 2019).
In spite of so many raids, the employees were not being paid their deserving salary
and the stores kept utilizing them in fullest, the raids revealed that 83 stores almost 47

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NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS ON 7- ELVIN WAGE FRAUD
payroll problems related to compliance of the workers and also falsification in payroll
sheets. The Senator Deborah O’ Neil recently announced in the senate that more efforts was
required to eradicate the practice of labour abuse. This could have been done by ensuring a
more organized structure made by the regulator. Increase in the budget and upgrading its
powers, again from April 6 to May 3, 97 stores were found to have compliances related
issues. 7-Eleven has not referred to the issue by taking any legal issues but they handled it
internally. 7-Elven is a big corporation that has that has been generating their revenue
before interests and they accumulated tax of $ 143 million in the year 2015. The
franchise of 7- Eleven the head office takes the 75% of the profit and rest is taken by the
franchisees. The 7-eleven can catch anyone between $300,000 and $1.7million depending
on their location, size it can also be a petrol pump station. Thus, this highlighted the financial
condition of the country along with the ineffectiveness of the Fair Work movement and the
fraud that 7-Eleven did with the government.
According to The Australian newspaper, the chairperson of the 7-Eleven announced
that they would be, refunding the workers who were being underpaid employees knowing
that the franchisees were liable to pay to the employees. The decision that was undertaken by
the chairperson can cause them a huge financial loss. The whole scenario was dealt very
strategically and the employees were promised to receive their deserved money. The
chairperson of the 7-Eleven Mr. Withters also refuted the ACCC chairperson Alan’s view
that and his franchise model, which was 57% to 43% and they were responsible to pay back
to the young employees of Australia (Theaustralian.com.au. 2019). The Fairfax Media also
threw the chairperson of 7-Eleven a question about spot-checking the stores to understand
whether the franchisees were paying the wages rightfully or not, in which he answered that
they had a very good bond, with their franchisees. They were providing sufficient
information to the head office of 7-Eleven and they only believed it in terms of the face value

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NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS ON 7- ELVIN WAGE FRAUD
of the franchisees if the people were not being rightfully paid then the chairperson accepted
that to be his fault (Karp, 2019). The Fair Work Ombudsman reveled that they conducted a
20 spot-checking 7-Eleven stores of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and made one store
owner accepted that they do not pay the employees what they deserved
(Theaustralian.com.au. 2019).
The essay can be finally concluded that the two editorials on 7-Eleven incident
unfolds the two parts of the incident the financial review stated the financial condition that
was poor on a large scale and the ineffectiveness of Fair Work movement to stop the practice
of paying the employees what they deserved. In the editorial of The Australian it has been
revealed that the chairperson of the 7-Eleven will be paying the employees their deserved
wages. The young population in Australia who have undergone the unjust structure of wage
policy were promised to receive their salary. The chairperson stated that the responsibility
was of the franchisees but the head office would pay on behalf.

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NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS ON 7- ELVIN WAGE FRAUD
References
Danckert, A. (2019). 7-Eleven: wage fraud cover-up from head office. Retrieved 12
September 2019, from https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/7eleven-wage-fraud-
coverup-from-head-office-20150829-gjahrc.html
Ferguson, A. (2019). 7-Eleven: Head office is not fooling anyone. Retrieved 12 September
2019, from https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/7eleven-head-office-is-not-
fooling-anyone-20150831-gjbr0p.html
Karp, P. (2019). 7-Eleven workers beaten and forced to pay back wages, Senate inquiry
hears. Retrieved 12 September 2019, from
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/05/7-eleven-workers-beaten-and-
forced-to-pay-back-wages-senate-inquiry-hears
MYERS, J. (2019). Three 7-Eleven stores hit by armed man still at large. Retrieved 12
September 2019, from https://fox5sandiego.com/2019/06/08/two-7-eleven-stores-robbed-
by-armed-man/
Theaustralian.com.au. (2019). Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery,
website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps. Retrieved 12 September 2019, from
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?
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%2Fnews-story
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