7-Eleven Employee Relations: A Case Study on Wage Underpayment

This case study analyzes the employee relations issues within 7-Eleven, particularly focusing on wage underpayment and non-compliance with National Employment Standards. It examines the role of the Fair Work Commission in addressing these issues, including penalties and investigations. The report provides a background on workplace entitlements, a comparison with other employment standards, and details the wage claim program. It presents the views of three former 7-Eleven employees regarding their experiences with underpayment and unfair labor practices, highlighting the impact of these issues on their working conditions and well-being. The study also reviews media coverage of the disputes, reflecting the responses of the Fair Work Commission and the involved parties. The assignment uses the case study to explore the implications of poor employee relations on workplace culture and the relationship between management and employees.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF 7 ELEVEN
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Executive summary
National Employment Standards (NES) plays an active part in standardizing the operations,
which includes leaves, awards and recognition, pay and others. Information about the
entitlements, which the employees can avail, adds authenticity towards the employments. Fair
Work Commission plays an integral part in supervising the performance of the business in
aligning to the standards and protocols. Underpayment cases are considered to be a breach of
the rules and regulations. This report peeks into the case of underpaying wage in 7 Eleven,
where the claims are dealt with by collecting information from the claimants and the store
operation records. A comparative study is established between payments and rewards and
recognition. Media coverage of the issue reflects the approaches of the Fair Work
Commission and the involved parties towards the problems.

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Table of contents
a) Background............................................................................................................................3
Entitlements in workplace......................................................................................................3
Selection of the workplace to discuss the issues with the employees....................................3
Application of the industrial instrument or entitlement in the workplace.............................3
b) Comparison with the other instruments.................................................................................4
Comparison with the entitlement of the relevant National Employment Standards..............4
Comparison with a similar entitlement in another instrument in another workplace............4
c) Application of entitlements in the workplace and views of the employees...........................4
Wage Claim program.............................................................................................................4
Views of three employees......................................................................................................5
Past and the present scenario..................................................................................................6
d) Media report of the recent dispute concerning the entitlement.............................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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a) Background
Entitlements in workplace
Entitlements induce negative vibes in the workplace, especially in the case of talent
management. Business leaders perceive entitlements as the expectation of the employees to
get certain benefits, which is beyond the organizational traditions and customs. Herein,
mention can be made of the perspective of the employees regarding receiving perks and
exemption from negative behaviours (McMahon & Hartmann, 2019). Wages, annual leave,
long service leave, sick leave, redundancy pay, superannuation and other benefits are
accounted as the significant entitlements, which the employees can avail.
Selection of the workplace to discuss the issues with the employees
This report attempts to shed light on the underpay wage in the workplace of 7
Eleven. Here, the mediums of advertising are used for disseminating the essential information
to the clients and the customers. Along with this, social media marketing is adopted for
increasing the trafficking of the audience towards the brand image. Discussions of the issues
are done in the form of meetings for providing a better understanding of the adopted policies,
practices and programs (7eleven.com.au, 2019). Minutes of the conference are notified
through notices and emails.
Application of the industrial instrument or entitlement in the
workplace
As per the revelations of Fairwork.gov.au (2019), more than $192,000 is spent in
penalties for 7 of the former employees of 7 Eleven. These workers are unpaid, which
degrades their skills, expertise and knowledge. One of the striking issues is shortchanging of
the workers to the overseas regions and developing false records for compensating.
Inadequate payments for short working hours is unjustified.

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b) Comparison with the other instruments
Comparison with the entitlement of the relevant National
Employment Standards
Leave, awards and agreements are also accounted as significant entitlements of
employment under the National Employment Standards. The employees can avail leaves for
going on holidays, sickness of the family members and self and others. It is the National
Employment Standards, which decides the minimum leave entitlements, which the employees
can take. Registered agreements add to the authenticity of the leave entitlements and
contracts for employment. These leaves are segmented into sick leaves, family and domestic
violence leave, compassionate and bereavement leave, maternity and parental leave, and
public holidays, among others (Fairwork.gov.au, 2019).
In comparison to this, awards and agreements are also registered in the form of the accords.
In case of the absence of registered agreement, an award spans the operations of the employer
and employees. Under such situation, minimum pay and conditions of the award apply
according to the terms and conditions.
Comparison with a similar entitlement in another instrument in
another workplace
According to Smh.com.au (2019), the issue of underpayment has been detected in
trades. The intensity of the case is massive, which adds vulnerability to the market position
for the supermarket giant. According to the statements of the lawyer, Stuart Wood of Fair
Work Commission, 60% of the workforce would be better paid off, if they are provided with
the minimum award rates (Smh.com.au, 2019).
c) Application of entitlements in the workplace and
views of the employees
Wage Claim program
7 Eleven conducts an assessment of the wage underpayment, as a part of the
obligations under the Proactive Compliance Deed, which has been signed with the Fair Work

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Commission. The claimants are to submit an adequately written claim upon encountering any
illegal instances of underpayment. In case of substantial claims with reasonable justification,
presentation is done to the franchisee. In some cases, the victims of underpayments are asked
to fill a form for submitting a new claim. If an application has been submitted previously,
then it would be thoroughly assessed under the terms and conditions of the program
(7eleven.com.au, 2019). The sources used to evaluate the claims are the information provided
by the claimant, information about the store operations and information provided by the
relevant franchisee.
The claimants need to understand that their consent is vital for the assessment to commence.
This consent allows the staffs to disclose the name and the information to the relevant
franchisee. Here, Douglas and Watt (2018) are of the view that tactfulness is extremely
important for preserving privacy in the personal details provided by the claimant. Time is
also a crucial consideration for the presentation and rectification of the claims.
Views of three employees
Further knowledge in underpayments can be gained through the interview responses
of three employees in 7 Eleven. All of the employees worked as a part-time worker in the
stores and did not have any leaves. The tutor needs to be acknowledged for extending support
regarding conducting the interviews. The first employee worked in the four of the 7 Eleven
stores around the area of Brisbane.
A tragic instance is that in each of the store, he encountered the issue of
underpayment. In one of the stores, he was hired as a trainer for a week without pay. He was
promised placement at the end of the contract. However, the results were entirely different.
Instead, he was compelled to work for an additional 40 plus hours in the stores. In one store,
he owes more than $30000, which is a case of underpayment. He also suffered from a back
injury in the workplace, which compelled me to quit the job. He decided to indulge in a face

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to face meeting with the boss for narrating the issue. Challenges, in this case, erupted in the
form of a threat letter from the franchisee lawyer, accusing him of immigrating and breaching
the terms and conditions of the visa. According to him, it a big fraud, which the company is
extracting in terms of hard efforts.
The second employee worked as a part-time worker in a store of South Yarra. He was
asked by the boss to work in-store, for which he was getting paid $10 per hour. However, the
travel expenses were $5 per hour. In addition to this, he was awarded low wages and
encountered threats from the boss regarding deportment. The cautious approach is reflected
from recorded every issue in a diary, which acted as evidence for the Fair Work Commission
to conduct an investigation. The result was in his favour, as the couple, who operated the
store was slapped a fine of $150000 from the Melbourne Magistrate Court.
The third employee worked at the two stores in the Melbourne CBD. He received an
award rate, which is below the terms and conditions specified in the National Employment
Standards. Not every time, he received a salary in cash. The owner pretended to be working.
However, it was his efforts, which he was imitating. He was hired for attending a week’s
training for free. Parkville store paid him $11 for an hour, and Fair Work raided one of the
stores for $16.50 per hour. According to his observations, he deserves much more than the
estimated $2500. He thinks that none of the workers at 7 Eleven is satisfied with the
payments. The managers have threated the employees by threatening them that raising voice
would result in cancellation of the visa.
Past and the present scenario
These issues reflect the negativity in the human resource management of 7 eleven,
contradicting the resources used for communicating with the employees. The managers are
portrayed to adopt an authoritative management style, which adversely affects the individual

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efforts of the employees. These issues have degraded the workplace culture and the stability
in the relation between the management and the employees.
d) Media report of the recent dispute concerning the
entitlement
In the descriptions of April 2018, it was found that the Circuit Court imposed
penalties on the operators of Brisbane CBD 7 Eleven stores for shortchanging the workers by
more than $31000. The penalty value valued up to $192,961. Legal action undertaken by the
Fair Work Ombudsman is the primary drive behind the penalties. After the investigations, it
was found that 21 employees across two stores were underpaid for a total value of $31,507.27
for 12 months. Since 2009, workers in the stores were paid flat rates for the number of hours
for which they worked. On public holidays, they received an additional $20 per hour in cash
(Fairwork.gov.au, 2019).
In terms of 24 hours, significant underpayments were noticed on the payments for
working on Saturdays, including penalty rates on the public holidays, overtime and shift time
rates. The General Retail Industry Award governed all these. The investigations also revealed
that two of the workers at Adelaide Street Stored were provided wages under the incorrect
classification. The range of the underpayments was specified as $98.36 to $5080.16, which
are under modification. Measures have been undertaken against the respondents for their
incapability to meet the records of the payslips. Here, the criteria considered was to include
all the employment information irrespective of the cash payments.
The judge considered that payments were substantial due to the low skilled nature of
the business. Vulnerability of the workers and their age puts the validity of the visa at stake.
The Fair Work Ombudsman specifies that under no circumstances the workers are to be
exploited for extracting the necessary labour.

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References
7eleven.com.au (2019). Wage Claim program. Retrieved 27th August 2019 from
https://www.7eleven.com.au/wageclaimsprogram
Dean, C., & Fraser, L. (2018). Employment law: The new normal: Flexibility in the
workplace. Governance Directions, 70(11), 733.
Douglas, S., & Watt, G. (2018). Implications of the Fair Work Commission's modern award
review for casuals. The Journal of New Business Ideas & Trends, 16(2), 30-40.
Fairwork.gov.au (2019). Awards & agreements. Retrieved 27th August 2019 from
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/awards-and-agreements
Fairwork.gov.au (2019). Employee entitlements https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-
entitlements
Fairwork.gov.au (2019). More than $192,000 in penalties for former 7-Eleven operators who
underpaid vulnerable workers. Retrieved 27th August 2019 from
thttps://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media-releases/2018-media-
releases/april-2018/20180410-vipper-and-viplus-mr
McMahon, F., & Hartmann, K. (2019). Risk management: Employer compliance with the
Fair Work Act: A major risk to your business?. Governance Directions, 71(5), 255.
Robertson, G. (2015). Unlawful discrimination in the workplace. Legal date, 27(3), 4.
Smh.com.au (2019). Coles admits much of its workforce underpaid after SDA deals
Retrieved 27th August 2019 from https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/coles-
admits-much-of-its-workforce-underpaid-after-sda-deals-20170608-gwnfl4.html
Walton, M. J. (2016). The shifting nature of work and its implications. Industrial Law
Journal, 45(2), 111-130.

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