Industrial Dispute at SPC Ardmona: An Employment Relations Report

This report examines the SPC Ardmona industrial dispute, a significant event impacting employment relations in Australia. The paper discusses the company's background, its parent company Coca-Cola Amatil, and the industrial dispute stemming from economic pressures, including the rising Australian dollar and high labor costs. The report explores the environmental factors contributing to the dispute, such as the industrial relations system and workplace environment, highlighting the challenges faced by the company. It analyzes the role of government support, economic conditions, and the need for innovation and niche market development. The report concludes with a summary of the issues and outcomes, emphasizing the importance of strong employment relations and environmental factor monitoring for business success. The analysis includes references to various sources and academic publications.

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Running Head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Employment Relations

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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

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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).

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Environmental Factors
Moving on to the next part, the need is to determine the environmental factors
contributed to the dispute. According to this, the industrial relations system and the workplace
environment are a big hurdle to the way business confronts significant issues. There is no doubt
that in the country like Australia the industrial relations system turn up a curse for employment
relations and puts a question mark on its growth and progress (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey and
Shields, 2016, p. 107).
The Protected Industrial Action gives an advantage to a union and its members. If the
things do not go as per their wish, they can get protection from the industrial action in order to
cause damage to the business. In such a situation, the curatives presented to an employer to end
the action are inadequate as well. Strikes commonly occurred in an Industrial Relations System.
The Content of Agreements does not go well with forming proper connection amid employer and
employees. Rather it goes with the different theme and that has nothing to do with forming a
better bond in between these two (Sappey, Maconachie, Sappey and Teo 1999).
The industrial relations system seems to be less of supportive and productive enough in
getting a hold on the situation faced at the part of SPC Ardoma. The company lacks the way to
deal with such a dispute and to make workforces engaged. Employment relations seems to be
going bad and dismal. It is very much required to take in proper steps in order to deal with it.
Most importantly, an organization has its workers at the core and that serves to be the pillars for
it (Towers 2004, p. 412).
In the case of SPC Ardoma, the internal, as well as external environmental factors,
created sabotage for the company and that make things beyond control. Lack of government
support and unfavorable economic conditions also lead to the massive destruction of the

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company. At this point, it is very much necessary to figure out the possible reasons behind just to
reach the better verdict. It is indispensable to understand the environmental factors in order to
make the things back on track (Murphy 2014).
Industrial disputes at SPC Ardoma is a really a big matter to be taken into consideration.
After going through different points, the government grants a fund to the company in order to
accommodate as per environmental conditions and to make the business grow and excel at an
incessant basis. It becomes equally important to focus more on employment relations as it serves
to be the key foundation for the business in order to make liaison with its workers. Workforce
environment is crucial enough to make plans work out and to draw in fruitful resultants also. In
Australia, the industrial relation system demands a revival (Fastenau 1998).
Conclusion
In the end, it can be summed up that the company SPC Ardoma confronts enormous
issues and was to face a closure as well. But, due to its unending efforts and attempts, the
company recovered and is capable to stand again. Strong employment relations and the power to
innovate make the company strong enough to deal well with the challenges and also to make a
better move ahead. Along with this, the company started searching for more of niche markets in
order to have a distinct position amid its stakeholders. Strong monitoring of the environmental
factors is a must in order to realize greater growth and progress. Being a strong example of an
industrial dispute, the company struggled hard to get out of this trouble and marked an effective
entry in the market.

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References
‘Fact file: Labour costs not to blame for SPC Ardmona's woes’, 2014, viewed 23 July 2014,
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-17/fact-file-labour-costs-not-to-blame-for-spc-ardmona-
woes/5245260>
Fastenau, M 1998, ‘The SPC Dispute: A Case of Manufacturing Conflict?’, International
Journal of Employment Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 103-126.
Hor, J 2009, Managing Termination of Employment: A Fair Work Act Guide, CCH Australia
Limited, Sydney.
Matthewson, P 2014, ‘More than one message in SPC decision’, viewed 30 January 2014,
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-31/matthewson-spc/5229740>
Murphy, K 2014, ‘Tony Abbott cabinet rejects $25m assistance plea from SPC Ardmona’,
viewed 30 Jan 2014 <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/tony-abbott-cabinet-
rejects-25m-assistance-plea-from-spc-ardmona>
Nankervis, AR, Baird, M, Coffey, J & Shields, J 2016, Human Resource Management: Strategy
and Practice, Cengage AU, Victoria.
‘Our Business’, n.d., viewed n.d. <https://spc.com.au/our-story/>
Price, A 2007, Human Resource Management in a Business Context, Cengage Learning EMEA,
Bedford Row.
Sappey, RB, Maconachie, G, Sappey, J & Teo, S 1999, ‘Work Intensification and Social
Relations: A study of enterprise agreements in the Queensland food processing industry’,
International Journal of Employment Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 105-124.
Towers, B 2004, The Handbook of Employment Relations: Law and Practice, Kogan Page
Publishers, Sterling VA.

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