Tim Jones
Australia’s service stations are in uproar over employment in the wake of the COVID19 epidemic.
With an estimated 2 million Australians set to be out of work, service stations face the daunting prospect of employing Australian citizens for the first time in years, in a daunting scenario that will challenge their bottom lines.
The major service station providers are worried about the current climate, with 7/11 the most notably concerned.
“Wage theft is going to be nearly impossible now,” a spokesman for 7/11 said.
“Our business model of selling franchises to recent Indian arrivals to exploit other Indians is in real peril. I don’t know how we will survive.”
“$10 an hour was manageable. $22 an hour will break us.”
It’s not just franchisors that are feeling it. The employees will also be impacted.
“Sir, it is hard enough working 70 hours a week sir. Now I have to complete with citizens of this country for work means it will be very unfair,” 7/11 employee Harvinder said.
“I came here to work sir, not study. Having to pretend to go to class makes it already difficult when I’m working so much.”
Caltex, BP and Shell declined to comment.
