In this scenario, the business is a small take away restaurant situated in a busy city area.

A young lady of Vietnamese background on a permanent resident visa who has only recently arrived in Australia (we will call her Hong) is working in the Cafe/Take Away owned by two people, of a Croatian background who are Australian citizens and are the owners of the business in a partnership.

Hong is the Supervisor overseeing more than 3 staff every day working 6 days a week with no breaks. The 3 staff members are of Arabic, European and African origin and are also seeking their permanent residency

The employers pay Hong below the minimum wage with no taxes or superannuation paid on Hong’s behalf. The staff members have approached Hong on separate occasions to discuss their dissatisfaction with the café owners due to having pay issues themselves and also not knowing how to approach the owners on this issue.

Two (2) staff members have approached Hong and complained that one of the owners has made disparaging remarks about the 3^rd staff member that they believe is racially motivated and inappropriate. They are feeling threatened and scared to speak up to defend their colleague for fear of losing their job.

The staff members are displaying poor performance in the workplace due to the stress of the situation including problems with attendance, punctuality and levels of rudeness to each other and the customers.

Questions

• What are the cultural considerations and sensitivities that Hong needs to take into account when communicating with the staff members and employers?
• What legislative requirements should Hong be aware of before taking the problem to the employers?
• How should Hong document the staff member’s complaint?
• Should Hong speak to the team members individually or collectively when gathering information about the problem? Explain your answer.
• Why has the staff members’ work performance been affected so negatively because of this situation? How might customers be also affected?
• What laws are the employers breaching? What government department could assist Hong in dealing with this situation?