7-Eleven Staff underpaid as company demands high returns

Fels said that the staff are being made to go through an impossible situation by a franchise agreement imposed by the 7-Eleven head office.

Store operator Singh Sarkaria allegedly owed one employee a total of $43,633 and another worker $5793.

The action is being prepared by Levitt Robinson principal Stewart Levitt following explosive revelations of a massive cover-up of employee exploitation being run out of 7-Eleven’s corporate headquarters by a joint investigation between BusinessDay and Four Corners. It found 60% of the shops investigated were underpaying staff.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has conducted three separate raids on 7-Eleven in the past six years.

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain pays many of its Australian staff just $10 an hour, an investigation says.

The Fair Work Ombudsman said the alleged underpayments equalled workers often being paid rates equivalent to $10 an hour.

His company could be fined between $25,500 to $51,000 per breach.

7-Eleven’s head office said it supported the ombudsman’s action but Mr Dwyer said there were questions about how much the company knew about wage fraud in its stores.

On Monday, 7-Eleven Australia launched an independent review of underpayment of workers at its stores.

“We’ll be working with them and the relevant authorities to make sure they get their legal entitlements”.

In a statement, 7-Eleven claimed to “take our responsibility as a franchisor seriously”. “We hear that they are motivated to do this as long as they are paid in cash and their employment records only equate to the maximum 40 hours a fortnight allowed under their visa”, Ms James said.

“That shows first of all the employer has acted dishonestly and secondly, there was knowledge of the correct wages”.

She also noted that under the Fair Work Act, the responsibility for ensuring employee entitlements rights rests with the franchisee.

Drew believes there will be “some substantial investigations” of 7-Eleven in coming weeks and the outcome “will be watched very closely”.

The panel will be chaired by an as-yet-unnamed “eminent and qualified Australian” and 7-Eleven chief executive Warren Wilmot said in a statement the company has approached the Ombudsman’s office for help to establish the panel.