A well-aligned partnership helping this retail group strengthen their approach to workplace disputes.

The background

Super Retail Group is a large, well established and respected retail establishment with approximately 12,000 employees across the entire group. Home to brands such as BCF, Macpac, Rebel and Supercheap Auto, the group has operations in Australia, New Zealand and China.

Given the size and publically listed nature of the organisation, Super Retail Group has taken great steps towards embedding their corporate values across the organisation which is at the centre of all people management strategies.

Citation Group (formerly FCB Group) has worked with Super Retail Group for over a decade on all of their workplace relations matters through the team at Citation Legal.  From the outset, it’s been a true partnership of shared values and a common understanding in terms of how matters should be approached.

Upon the commencement of our partnership, we took a great deal of time in gaining a fundamental understanding of Super Retail Group’s structure, corporate values, mode of operation, and approach to workplace relations matters.

It’s no coincidence that taking the time to gain this level of understanding from the outset means we now have a fundamental understanding of Super Retail Group’s decision making process which, in turn, has enabled Citation to approach all matters from Super Retail Group’s viewpoint, and work towards delivering solutions which align with their cultural and operational framework.

Our approach

The team at Citation Legal act for Super Retail Group in all employment disputes, including unfair dismissals, adverse action and equal opportunity claims and bullying complaints.

We work with Super Retail Group to ensure the business is placed in a position of strength when dealing with these disputes by reviewing their employment management processes to identify and correct any gaps. Super Retail Group is a business that highly values its team, and gives them every opportunity to succeed, with clear behavioural and operational guidelines. The benefit of this approach, and the alignment of this with employment management processes, is that the business is able to take a very firm approach to disputes. Super Retail Group, in giving its team members every opportunity to succeed, is positioned so that any failure to do so rests with the team member.

Citation’s relationship with Super Retail Group extends to partnering with the business through their unique enterprise bargaining process, involving a large employee representative group and two major unions. The 2015 Super Retail Group Enterprise Agreement saw the business achieve vital structural changes and productivity improvements. We worked with the business through all stages of the process, including initial strategy, negotiation, technical advice and support and engagement with the Fair Work Commission.

The outcome

Citation’s detailed knowledge of Super Retail Group’s processes and decision making framework, in conjunction with our combined commitment to process improvements, has meant that we have significantly reduced the business’ overall expenditure on employment disputes, particularly in relation to settlements.