Oil giant Caltex tipped off its service station owners that they were about to be raided by the workplace

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Oil giant Caltex tipped off its service station owners that they were about to be raided by the workplace regulator amid allegations of intimidation and systemic wage fraud.

A Fairfax Media investigation can reveal some petrol station workers are being paid in cash, as little as $12 an hour, and sleeping in beds at the back of the store when their shift ends. Many are being threatened with deportation if they speak up.





Lowest paid workers are set to receive a modest wage increase.
Fairfax Media is also aware of one worker whose family in Pakistan has been threatened by associates of Caltex franchisee owners in Australia. He is now fearful of speaking out to authorities or the media in case the threats of violence against his family are carried out.

A letter obtained by Fairfax Media reveals that the Fair Work Ombudsman, which enforces minimum pay rates across Australia, gave Caltex advanced warning that it was going to raid its service stations across the country.

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Caltex passed the information on to its franchisees, to prepare them for the "unannounced" raids this week.

"Caltex has been notified by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) that they will be commencing unannounced site audits across our Franchise and Calstores national network and these audits will commence from as early as next week," Caltex wrote to franchisees on October 19.

Tipped off

Fair Work said it gave Caltex advanced warning of the raids "in order to promote compliance across the Caltex network" and to "encourage Caltex to message its entire network that it could expect a site visit by the Fair Work Ombudsman."

It said Caltex was not advised of the outlets, dates or times associated with the site visits.

The Fair Work Ombudsman gave Caltex advanced warning that it was going to raid its service stations across the country.
The Fair Work Ombudsman gave Caltex advanced warning that it was going to raid its service stations across the country. Photo: Sasha Woolley
Service station workers told Fairfax Media they had been instructed by their bosses to lie to Fair Work inspectors about their pay rates, to cover up systemic wage fraud across the network.

"My manager asked me 'don't tell anyone my real pay rate'," one current employee said. He said he has been threatened with deportation if he speaks out.


The raids come more than a year after convenience store network 7-Eleven was exposed underpaying workers and falsifying payroll records in the country's biggest wage fraud scandal.

Over the past 12 months Caltex has been systematically auditing franchisees, targeting those with "administrative anomalies".

We stand there for eight-hour and ten-hour shifts and we are getting nothing.

Syed Aqeel
So far, of the eight franchisees it has audited, five have been terminated after they were found to have either "deliberately underpaid" workers or otherwise breached their franchise agreement.

Action supported

The company said in a statement it fully supported FWO's raids and told its franchisees and its own operated network to fully cooperate.

"In cases of fraudulent or deliberate misbehaviour, we have not hesitated to terminate our agreement with any such franchisee," it said.

The company said it proactively contacted the FWO 12 months ago and had kept the regulator regularly updated.

Caltex is a listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange. It has more than 796 sites, which includes 650 franchised sites and the rest Caltex controlled sites.

It has made an offer to buy Woolworths' 530 service stations, which, if successful, would make Caltex the biggest service station operator in the country with a market share of more than 34 per cent. Caltex reported a half-year profit of $318 million, compared with $375 million in the previous corresponding period.

Paid $12 an hour

Fairfax Media can reveal that some workers, mostly students from Pakistan and India on student visas, have been paid as little as $12 an hour.

Syed Aqeel said he was paid $12 an hour when he began at the Grange Caltex station in Adelaide in 2012. The accounting student, from Pakistan, worked overnight shifts. If a customer drove away without paying for petrol, he says the franchisee made him pay for it.

"We stand there for eight-hour and ten-hour shifts and we are getting nothing, and if someone drives off, you have to pay out your whole shift money," he said.


Mr Aqeel, who worked for a number of Caltex stations over the past four years, said for some of that time he was paid in cash using an elaborate system.

Another worker, who declined to be identified, said he was paid around $13 dollars an hour when he worked for various Caltex stores.

Below minimum wage

This is well below the weekday part-time rate of $17.70 an hour on weekdays and $26.55 on weekends. For casuals the rate is $23.32 an hour increasing to $30.42 on weekends and public holidays.

He said the overnight shift could be dangerous work, including the risk of armed robberies.

"One of my colleagues was beaten up by some people in Clearview. One person got held up. A female staff member, she had a really bad situation," he said.

"A guy came with a knife and she paid him $600."

He said he was asked to lie to anyone who asked about his pay rate.

"I never raised my voice or stood against them. They know the loophole and they abuse the system and they know the psyche of our culture."

Regulator action

In South Australia, Fairfax Media is aware of claims employees are being paid as little as $13 dollars an hour using bags of cash at some Caltex service stations.

In 2012 the regulator found that service stations run by one of Caltex's largest franchisee groups with sites across NSW and South Australia, had underpaid 20 workers.

The franchisee had to refund $18,367 to the workers and the regulator wrote a letter of caution. In 2015 Fair Work conducted another raid of the group's sites but found minimal issues.

The allegations come as Caltex is fighting another battle with workers at a site in Lytton that manufactures lubricants for motor oils.

Members of the National Union of Workers (NUW) have gone on strike indefinitely, NUW's industrial officer Dario Mujkic said, after Caltex attempted to cut workers wages by 15 per cent. "We are calling it Caltex Greed," he said.

Caltex has had a history of controversy with its franchisees. In 2004 hundreds of franchisees threatened legal action, alleging a discount petrol contract with Woolworths would hurt them financially.

An internal Caltex head office document leaked to media outlets in 2004 recommended instilling "fear, uncertainty and doubt" in franchisees, with the aim of securing Caltex the best possible deal for its discount petrol link-up with Woolworths.

It prompted Caltex at the time to issue an apology and make a statement: "While the contents of the memorandum were unacceptable and Caltex has suffered damage to its reputation, it is fortunate the effects on Caltex and franchisees were not worse."

Do you know more? Contact: adele.ferguson@fairfaxmedia.com.au
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/busi...02-gsg8qn.html

[Dr Smith]

So we're going to go out and check you are complying with all required between you and your staff, but rather then surprise you and catch anyone out, we'll tell you we're coming so any non-compliance can be rectified...never mind the previous years of non-compliance or mistreatment of staff.....and what would I do as a manager...., oh yeah get rid of any staff "not being treated fairly", remove all bedding from the store, have all my paperwork "corrected'..and so when the Fair Work ombudsman finds out all is OK at Caltex, we can go back to the "normal order" under the guise of being fully compliant.

[XR6_power]

It really is a very token response from the Fair Work Commission regarding something that is a massive rort. These workers need to join their union, to bring fairness back to these workplaces.

[nstg8a]

So 7-11 last year, Caltex this year, freedom next year?

[EDManual]

Where I live there are zero indians or bangledeshis. Never seen any! However a Brand new Caltex has opened and! Why are the workers these people?

[V8 Ghia Mike]

This reminds me of the huge On The Run station empire here in SA which keeps their employees as 'trainees' for years on end to keep their wages low. Allegedly.

[kypez]

Originally Posted by EDManual

Where I live there are zero indians or bangledeshis. Never seen any! However a Brand new Caltex has opened and! Why are the workers these people?

Cause they are willing to work the graveyard shift that many other are not willing to. They are doing what it takes to get ahead in life and not stand in line for a handout. You'll find that many of them have more qualifications than half the people on this forum and are just trying to make ends meet as they struggle for a job.

[LTD Ute]

And yet another "What is wrong in this country" post!

[mr smith]

Originally Posted by kypez

Cause they are willing to work the graveyard shift that many other are not willing to. They are doing what it takes to get ahead in life and not stand in line for a handout. You'll find that many of them have more qualifications than half the people on this forum and are just trying to make ends meet as they struggle for a job.

First off, many of these overseas qualifications are very questionable and are not worth the paper they are written on.

Second this Caltex thing is another scam like the 7/11 one that has a lot tied up in immigration and doggy dealings by this group.
Here's how it works:
Cashed up matey buys a few franchises, taxis etc, followed by a nice sized house. House is decked out with beds in every room and the women keeping a curry on the boil in the kitchen. Workers get a bed, food and small allowance while matey pays them peanuts and takes the profits.
Any complaints are met with a threat to their visas.
A nice little additional scam is to have them study at mateys relos "learning academy".
Alot of the workers also pay matey cash upfront to be part of this.
Final goal obviously is the promise of being in Australia full time and wether that happens, who knows.

[Junkyard-Dog]

It's an interesting topic and anyone that has worked in this industry knows how it can be. There is some shady, border-line immoral stuff that takes place and it certainly seemed that some questionable orders were passed down to store managers from head-office/corporate on almost a daily basis. Management relies on emotional blackmail to trick junior staff as well and I saw a lot of that going on within the few stores I worked in.

One of my favourite aspects of working for BP was meeting people from varying cultural backgrounds. I worked the graveyard shift and the only other guys that would do that shift were two Indian dudes - they were the best, most reliable guys I worked with. I was the only white Aussie guy that regularly worked the overnight shift even though it paid a fair bit more. Unfortunately many mornings I had to work through the morning rush because I was waiting for my fellow employees to arrive and relieve me. Half the Aussies regularly woke up late, "got locked in the toilet" or gave some other crap excuse for lateness. I never had that problem with the foreign guys.

The only bad foreign guy was the one that tried to rob the store (inside job) and was caught out on one of my first training shifts. That was a pretty crazy introduction to servo life.