Employment Relations in Australia: Research and Analysis Report

This report delves into the intricacies of employment relations within Australian business organizations, focusing on the relationship between employers and employees. It highlights the issue of low wages at Coles, a major supermarket chain, and its impact on workplace conflicts, employee performance, and organizational productivity. The research explores the causes of these issues, including legal aspects, conflict management, and attendance problems. The report analyzes the benefits of maintaining good employment relations, such as increased employee motivation, improved retention, and reduced conflict. It also outlines various ways to resolve workplace issues, including disciplinary actions and conflict resolution procedures. The report concludes with recommendations for resolving current situations and managing future occurrences, emphasizing the importance of fair wages, clear communication, and a positive work environment. The report also references the role of unions and the Fair Work Commission in addressing these challenges.

Running head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Employment relations
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Part 2: Research and analysis..........................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Research...........................................................................................................................................3
Causes..........................................................................................................................................4
Impact in the workplace...............................................................................................................5
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................6
Benefits of maintaining good employment relations...................................................................6
Ways of resolving such issues.....................................................................................................9
Recommendations for resolving the current situation and managing future occurrences.............10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Part 2: Research and analysis
Introduction
The employment relations focus on the various relationships between the employees and
the employers within the business organizations in Australia. The employers of the organizations
manage the human resources properly to ensure that the needs and requirements of the
employees are fulfilled and they are provided with enough scopes and opportunities to perform
to their potential within the workplace with ease and effectiveness. As, we all know that it is
important to establish good relationship between the employers and employees of the
organization, because the employers are responsible for the management of processes such as
recruitment, selection and providing rewards and compensations to the employees as well
(Alcover, Martínez-Íñigo & Chambel, 2012).
Research
The major issue that has been faced regarding the employer and employee relationship is
the low level of wages paid to the workers of the organization by the supermarket giant named
Coles in Australia (Coles.com.au, 2017). This has resulted in workplace conflicts and even
deteriorated the quality of products and services within the business organization, i.e., Coles,
Australia. There are other issues as well including a loss of money due to the agreements made
between the employer and Union of Coles. The wages paid are quite lower than the awards, as a
determined based on the enterprise agreement managed between the employers and employees of
the organization (Bach, 2012). From the previous part of the research topic, it could be
understood that the workplace conflicts experienced included four major players such as the

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employer, i.e., Coles, Union SDA, employee Penny Vickers and State executive body, which is
the Fair Work Commission Act. There is no need for trade unions as well because it demands
the trust and loyalty of the employees to focus on the managerial emphasis and applications with
ease and efficiency. The labour and management interests are opposite to each other and so there
can be emergence of conflicts based on the natural responses of workers to the exploitation by
capital. The employers also do hold the responsibilities of controlling and enforcing skills among
the individuals, furthermore focus more on persuasion and coordination between the employees
of the organization (Conway et al., 2016).
Causes
The issues related to the employment relations are legal issues, conflict management
issues and attendance issues as well. The employment relations issues could result from the
employment and labor laws and also because of issues such as workplace harassment,
discrimination within workplace, not providing equal opportunities to everyone and most
importantly lesser wages paid to the workers. The employers have the roles and responsibilities
of identifying the harassment causes and even allegations regarding discrimination within the
workplace of Coles. Sometimes, the employees might not be satisfied with the job
responsibilities that had been handed over to them and in such cases, the employers must
accommodate the workers and modify the job responsibilities based on some issues faced by
them. The legal issues often hinder accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives and
so the laws, rules and regulations have been enabled to govern the legal aspects for managing
employment relations and ensure that the issues are overcome with ease and effectiveness
(Donaghey et al., 2014).

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There could also be conflicts emerging within the workplace between the employees,
staffs and even sometimes between the employees and managers of the organizations in
Australia. During the critical situations, it is the duty of the manager to ensure that proper
resolution procedures are used to maintain optimal working relationships between the employees
and employers of the organization. These kinds of procedures also allow the employees to
provide their views and opinions and make sure that the issues are not disclosed outside, rather
these issues will be resolved internally. The management of conflicts also helps in making the
employers document the various aspects related to a particular incident and even make the
employers informed about ways of resolving those (Giese & Thiel, 2014). For the employees of
an organization, a strong attendance must be maintained by them and several issues might tend to
arise when they missed their work or even had not been adhering to the schedule, furthermore
affecting both the co-workers and deteriorating the quality of work done by them within the
workplace. An employee could often be found to get involved in some inappropriate behaviors
and the employers must correct them through development of disciplinary action. This would
prevent such situations, also improve the performances of workers through encouragement and
motivation, and furthermore allow them to maintain ethical practices for creating a good culture
within the workplace. The presence of a good culture could establish good and positive
relationships between the employers and employees and even make them work together as an
unit to accomplish the business goals and objectives effectively (Hutchinson, 2012).
Impact in the workplace
As the major issue here is the low wages provided to the workers based on the different
kinds of agreements, so the performances of workers may deteriorate and this can deteriorate the

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organisational performance, furthermore decreasing the organizational productivity and sales
revenue in business. This was because of the agreements made by SDA, which resulted in
making more than 2,50,000 employees paid less than the actual awards. This made the
employers gain certain benefits such as they were able to save a lot of money, i.e., nearly up to
$300 million every year. When the opinions and views of the employer and employees do not
match, then there can difference in attitudes and behaviors, which can further create complexities
regarding the clarification of roles and responsibilities of the employees and not being able to
perform to the potential within the workplace (Kalleberg, 2013). This would also prevent
innovation, creativity and establishment of new policies to prevent issues like unpaid wages and
low wages paid to the workers within quick time. The relationship between employers and
employees also depend on the ways by which employees do collective bargaining while
communicating with the employers regarding the structure of salary and wages that have been
decided and will be paid to them. There are various concerns for these kinds of issues that have
fallen to the industrial relations related to the study of collective bargaining. Due to lack of focus
on the industrial relations and human resource management from the administration of formal
contracts and agreements, the employers have failed to establish good relationships with the
employees, which has created further issues within the workplace and decreased the
organizational efficiency and business performance too (Kaufman, 2014).
The employment tribunal laws are implemented to ensure that the workers of the
organization need to first notify the conciliations service before creating any case related to the
discrimination or unfair dismissal within the workforce. The new employment tribunals
implemented could facilitate the employer employee relationship and create new incentive and
wages plan for respecting the rights and roles of the staffs rather than making them face any

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financial penalties at any stages. With the Confederation support, the employer could also
change the culture for resolving the issues with the employees as well and pay them right wages
(bbc.com, 2017).
Analysis
Benefits of maintaining good employment relations
There are several advantages that can be obtained by managing good relationship
between the employers and employees of the business organizations in Australia. Maintaining
strong relationship and establishing a sense of trust and loyalty between them could also help in
creating a good culture and enhance the efficiency of the working environment. It would increase
the level of motivation of employees and could even lift the morale of employees with ease and
effectiveness. This would keep the employees motivated and encouraged and might even drive
their performances quite quickly. The companies in Australia, which have invested a lot of
money in the management of employment relations can thus increase the production level of the
organization, even result in better profit level and ensure continuous business growth and success
(Kersley et al., 2013). A good working environment could be created by gaining the loyalty and
trust of employees and encouraging a loyal workforce too. Gaining such effective workforce
could help in improving the retention of existing employees and attract new employees to the
organization as well. This helps in saving a lot of cost for the recruitment processes along with
the training sessions provided to them. From various evidences, it was found that the cost
incurred during the turnover of employees has increased largely than the cost of managing
employment relations within the workplace. In case the turnover of employees is lower, it can be

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assumed that the employer do possess a workforce that consists of employees with relevant
knowledge, skills and expertise (Kim & Bae, 2017).
There are other advantages of maintaining good employments relations too such as
resolution of conflicts and creating a more productive workforce. When strong relationships are
established between the employer and employees, it can also help in reducing the chances of
conflicts and make the employees more motivated and encouraged to focus on their individual
tasks and enhance the productivity of the organization easily. It is often stated that a happy
workforce consists of not only a good culture but also includes a set of employees with the most
desired skills, knowledge and expertise to perform efficiently within the workplace, keep it
productive and ensure business success (Klarsfeld et al., 2014).
With the development of employment relations, it would be easy for the employees to
respect the employers and achieve the designated roles and responsibilities through setting of
goals much easily. The productivity will also become higher and with the setting of clear goals
and objectives, the management of human resources will be done much more appropriately. The
employer and employee relationship is a must for the success and growth of the business
organizations like Coles, Myers, Woolworths, etc. and it can keep the employees of the
organization encouraged to perform better (Wilkinson, Wood & Deeg, 2014). They could be
rewarded with incentives to drive their performances and make them feel valued for the
organization as a whole. It is a true fact that the various management levels within the business
organizations create good culture where employees can work as an unit and become more
productive consistently. Goals are set through strong employee relations and this increases the
level of enthusiasm among the em0loyees, furthermore make them focus on how to achieve
reputation and good image while working within the organization (McDonald & Thompson,

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2016). When a positive relation is formed between the employers and employees of the
organizations, it becomes easy to delegate tasks and grab enough scopes and opportunities to
empower the employees and staffs and make them acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses
too. Employers need to make statements clearly to the employees regarding their weaknesses, so
that those can be rectified and they can improve the organisation’s workforce efficiency
(bbc.com, 2017). This would not only help in resolving the communication issues, but will also
help in enhancing the performances of workers, furthermore make them overcome the issues
related to workplace conflicts and ensure that the workers are not paid less based on some
inappropriate agreements, which may benefit the employers more than the employees (Milner,
2015).
Ways of resolving such issues
In certain situations, employees are found to get involved in some kinds of
misunderstandings, which even make them show behaviors, and attitudes that may not be
expected within a good working environment (Coles.com.au, 2017). The employers do hold the
major responsibility to handle such critical situations and deal with the inappropriate behaviors
properly. The employers could implement discipline according to the kind and frequency of
violating the policies and procedures. One such examples could include inappropriate behaviors
by an individual and how it had been dealt with by the employer (Pries & Seeliger, 2013). The
manager could, at first provide a verbal warning to the employee asking him about such kind of
behavior. According to the issue presented in the first section, the employees, in case they are
provided with lesser wages can discuss the matter with the employers and ask about the causes.
When the employers could not provide a proper explanation, then the employees could approach

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the higher management team to look into the matter and ensure that these kinds of issues were
resolved as soon as possible (Wilkinson & Wood, 2012). The employees could also show
laziness and be absent at office, based on which, the employer had the rights and authority to
deliver a written warning and make them know about the issue. In case the issue is faced again,
the employer could give a final warning prior to the termination of the employment of the
individual. When the employer is held responsible for not paying the right amounts of wages to
the employees, then the manager or higher authority of the organization can document the policy
violation and discourage the employer from getting involved in such kinds of issues ever again
(Baskaya & Rubinstein, 2012).
The employer could also provide freedom to the employees for delivering better quality
services to people and ensure that the right amounts of wages are paid to the employees. Not
giving the employees freedom can result in keeping them bound under certain limitations, which
may hinder their creativity skills and innovation too. The employers must have time to
communicate with the employees consistently and make them feel valued for the organization.
This would help in maintaining steady relationships and make the employees enjoy enough
freedom to perform to their highest potential with ease and effectiveness (Gargiulo, 2017).
It is important to create a good working environment where employer can interact with
the employees properly and keep open doors for any sort of queries and concerns related to the
lesser wages paid to the employees. The employer must make sure that an open communication
channel had been established to manage quick resolution of workplace conflicts with ease. It is
important to prevent discrimination within the workplace for making sure that all the employees
are paid well enough and equality is embraced within the organization (Townsend, Wilkinson &
Burgess, 2014). Allowing the employers to communicate with the employees is essential along

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with providing proper coaching and training sessions to improve their skills and knowledge and
make them perform to their potential, so that the wages are not deducted. From the first portion
of the project, it is clear that the employees have been working overtime, which is not required.
The employees must be provided with few days off so that they can get refreshed and perform to
their potential. Preventing discrimination within workplace can resolve conflicts properly and
ensure that the employees get good amounts of wages (Van Wanrooy et al., 2013).
Recommendations for resolving the current situation and managing future occurrences
 Maintaining good and positive communication is recommended between the employer
and employee is essential to resolve workplace conflicts
 Conflicts are inevitable within a workplace and so it is highly recommended to adjust
with the actual scenario and manage changes to improve the business functioning.
 It is important to provide the employees with training and developments sessions, so that
their performances can improve and there are no chances of wages deduction anyhow
from the employer’s side
 Focusing on the needs and requirements of the employees is also important and any sort
of issue regarding lesser wages shall be handled as soon as possible rather than later
 The employees must be provided with sufficient time to relax and get a free time amidst
their working hours that may not only deteriorate their performance but can also hamper
their production level.
 It is also recommended to ensure that the female workers are also paid equal amounts of
wages like the male workers and wages should be provided according to their
performances.

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 Proper employment contract is essential for ensuring that the employees are paid right
amounts of wages that have been decided during the process of recruitment and selection.
Conclusion
The topic focused on the most important concepts of employment relations based on the
previous topic which shed limelight on the issues within the workplace of business organization
Coles in Australia. It was clearly understood that the workers were paid lesser wages though they
had been working over time in many situations to manage business operations and processes
properly. The research portion demonstrated the relationships between the employer and
employees with the involvement of Union SDA, Employee and the state executive body. The
causes of such issues included misunderstanding or varied opinions of the employer and
employees. Lack of motivation and encouragement by the employer also proved to be a major
cause of such kinds of issues. It not only resulted in lesser commitment by workers but also
reduced the productivity level of the organization. The analysis was though done by
understanding the advantages of maintaining good and positive employee employer relationships
and ways like preventing discrimination, management of conflicts by the human resource
management team to resolve the issues with ease and effectiveness. Few recommendations were
provided as well to derive a good conclusion in the end of this report.