Employee Relation in Australia

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It is indeed unfair and against the rules when an employee works for overtime without pay. The employer has acted unreasonably by making store managers to work for first 129 hours overtime hours without pay. As long as employees work for the organization, they are entitled to reasonable compensation. Every employee, regardless of the position held, is entitled a workplace right. Although the hospitality industry or any other organization in the industry may use this as a way of minimizing costs of doing business, the act is unlawful.

In fact, there are numerous allowances associated with employees working in hospitality industry such as meal allowance for people working more than 2 hours overtime. There are least amount of hourly work provided by the labor rules and requirements. Some of the wage conditions to be taken into account as far as remuneration of employees are concerned such as the hourly rate of pay according to the employees’ classification and additionally penalty for any work done beyond the ordinary working hours (Australian Government 2013, n.p).

Another labor issue is that Store manager does not pay any shift supervisor or assistant manager for 30 minutes break even they don’t have time for break due to short staff. Any employee of the organization must work for some hours and be given unpaid meal break of not less than 30 minutes. It is therefore against the labor law to deny an employee a break. Any additional work done that limits an employee from having a meal break should be compensated at the rate of 50% of the ordinary hourly rate (Fair Work Ombudsman 2012, n.p). The organization’s lack of enough employees should not lead to taking an advantage and infringing of the existing employees rights.

However employees who feel that their workplace rights are infringed should seek justice from the unions, government, employees and the employers. The workers in the hospitality industry should seek assistance from their employers and express their dissatisfaction with the conditions and treatments at the workplace. The stores’ manager should discuss with his employers about his dissatisfaction with his working conditions particularly the fact that he is not paid the first 129 hours of overtime work. He should write a letter expressing his concern to his employer. The supervisor should also explain to the store’s manager their feelings and attitude towards the working conditions (Buultjens & Cairncross 2009, n.p).

They should write letters detailing the need to have breaks for more than 30 minutes or an arrangement of compensation as it is stipulated in the workplace rights. Employers should strictly adhere to the workplace rules that are fair and just to both the employees and the organization. Employees should also agree to contracts that are consistent with the workplace regulations and the Fair Work System.

The employees should only agree to sign contracts that they are comfortable with. Additionally, the employees may threaten to strike until the working conditions are improved in their workplaces. They may use other tactics such as go slow to attract the attention of their employer, media and the public at large (Markey et al 2001, p. 5-7).

Any worker such as the stores’ manager and the supervisors whose workplace rights are infringed can lodge complaint with the fair Work Ombudsman either by post or in person. The Fair Work Ombudsman will initiate legal action for penalties that may be very high to the hospitality organization that has contravened the Fair Work acts (Gray & Laidlaw 2002, p. 211-213).

The government has set rules on how employees should be treated. Fair Work systems have very clear federal divisions of the federal court that can solve the employment issues and initiate penalties. The government, especially through the federal courts therefore provides a good way of solving. There are also unions in the hospitality industry in Australia that could help employees seek resolution. The unions are very good in addressing issues such as the stores manager’s and the supervisors’ plights (Unions Australia 2013, n.p).

The unions do have a checklist of every issue regarding employment and will therefore provide a legal step in solving the problems facing employees. There are numerous unions in the hospitality industry such as the Australian Hotels Association that are registered under Fair Work Act 2009. The association represents very many members of the hospitality industry with numerous branches everywhere that address workplace relations and other issues (The Australian Workers’ Union 2013, n.p). The unions’ main objectives are creation of a working environment that ensures reasonable remuneration of employees as well as their safety. Unions are the best avenues that workers can use to fight for their employment rights.

Bibliographies

Australian Government. “Working Conditions.” Australia.gov.au.(2013): Accessed May, 25, 2013. http://australia.gov.au/topics/employment-and-workplace/working-conditions

Buultjens, J And Cairncross, Grant.”The Australian Hospitality Industry’s Response To Formalized Enterprise And Individual Bargaining Prior To The Rudd Government.” The Free Library, (2009): Accessed May 25, 2013. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The Australian hospitality industry’s response to formalised…-a0229992201 

Fair Work Ombudsman. “Employees.” Australian Government, (2012): Acessed May 25, 2013. http://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment/employees/pages/default.aspx

Gray, Judy And Laidlaw, Heather. Part-Time Employment And Communication Satisfaction In An Australian Retail Organization. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, Vol. 24 No. 2, (2002): 211-228. http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~tajoseph/article29.pdf

Markey et al. “Gender, Part-Time Employment and Employee Participation in the Workplace: Comparing Australia and the European Union.” University of Wollongong Research Online, (2001): Accessed May 25, 2013. http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=commwkpapers

The Australian Workers’ Union. (2013): Accessed May 25, 2013. http://www.awu.net.au/

Unions Australia. About Unions. ACTU, (2013): Accessed May 25, 2013. http://www.unionsaustralia.com.au/unions.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1