Employment Relationship and Wage Theft: HRM Report and Analysis

This report examines the employment relationship, specifically focusing on wage theft incidents in Australia, using 7-Eleven and Baiada Group as case studies. It explores the challenges of enforcing compliance within workplaces, particularly with fragmented employment and limited resources. The report delves into the limitations of the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) Act and proposes alternative recommendations, including the application of the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act and regulatory frameworks for supply chain systems. It highlights the importance of recalibrating work responsibilities to foster normative behavior among employers and distribute job-related liability to mitigate wage theft. The report concludes by emphasizing the need to identify the root causes of wage theft and implement strategies to improve workplace practices and protect employee rights.

Running head: HRM
Employment Relationship
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP
Executive Summary
This paper strives to figure out the influencing factors behind wage theft incidence
happened in a 7-Eleven store and the Baiada Group in Australia. Further, some recommendations
apart from Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) Act have been analyzed here along with their
consequences. Finally, this paper ends with some concluding remarks.

2EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

3EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP
Introduction
The enforcement of compliance rule within the workplace is a challenging concern for
the company. Fissured employment is reported as a consequence of outsourcing employee,
increasing household expenditure as well as job insecurity related to employability. This report
attempts to put forward a pathway in order to make employers compliable to the workplace laws.
Discussion
Owing to the presence of limited resources, detention of non-compliant employers seems
like a daunting task. Unlawful employers or owners of organizations often prohibit the inspectors
from accessing the employee record. Therefore, records get manipulated related to wages and
hours of work performed by the workers. In this context, the incidence regarding the monetary
punishment of $6,970 of 7-Eleven stores’ former operator can be used as a perfect example. It is
reported that the accused employer did not pay more than $21,000 to a temporary foreign
employee. As a consequence to that, this certain organization went through a distorted bilateral
relationship between the employers and employees. Another Australian company, namely,
Baiada was also confiscated by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) regulators (Hardy 2016).
Many plant workers who worked on holiday visas as well as for extra hours did not receive the
estimated payment from the Baiada employers. This resulted in sizable number of Baida traders
not being allowed to take part in the business. However, this susceptible employment
relationship raises questions on the role of existing FWO act in relation to the increasing
incidence of wage theft (Berg and Farbenblum 2017). This paper delineates some alternative
recommendations in the place of stringent penalties regarding FW act.

4EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP
Application of Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act: This act covered minimum
standards regarding employee health and safety issues. This insured health policy for all workers
of a specific organization included both employers and employees. Further, the WHS act
emphasized on duty-based responsibility where employer do not undertake liability of any
mishap happening within the organization (Macdonald, Bentham and Malone 2018). This
diminishes pertinent legal risk associated with an individual employer.
Regulatory act in terms of supply chain system: This special kind of supply chain
norms is made for textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry. This particular scheme
enhances the power of labor union in the workplace. Further, this provided formal job insurance
to the outsource employee instead of giving verbal commitments from the employer side
(McKenzie 2018).
As aforementioned, none of the legal act will eliminate fragmented attitude of the
employers at individual effort. Owing to limited access of government and union actions
noncompliance issues remain at unresolved condition. Effective amalgamation of legal activities
including FW act can put forward a solution to the fissured employability.
Conclusion
This report finds that reasons behind wage theft needs to identified at first. Extreme work
pressure and limited access to resources due to poor wage structure are considered as key
concerns. The work responsibilities should be recalibrated in order to bring normative behavior
among the employers. This would distribute the job related liability among the employers,
resulting in that individual employer will be less involved in the wage theft process.

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References:
Berg, L. and Farbenblum, B., 2017. Wage theft in Australia: Findings of the national temporary
migrant work survey. Available at SSRN 3140071.
Hardy, T. 2016. Who Should be Held Liable for Workplace Contraventions and on What Basis?,
Australian Journal of Labour Law, 29, pp, 1-28
Macdonald, F., Bentham, E. and Malone, J., 2018. Wage theft, underpayment and unpaid work
in marketised social care. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 29(1), pp.80-96.
McKenzie, M., 2018. The erosion of minimum wage policy in Australia and labour's shrinking
share of total income. Journal of Australian Political Economy, The, (81), p.52.