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Supermarket giant 7-Eleven have been accused of underpaying workers after a report found that two-thirds of 7-Eleven shops are underpaying their workers, many of whom are foreign students. According to The Guardian, “7-Eleven’s head office looked at payroll compliance in July and August and found 69% had ongoing payroll issues”. In 2014, the federal Fair Work Ombudsman raided 20 stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, confiscating rosters, timesheets and CCTV footage. It found that 60 % of the shops investigated were underpaying staff.

Waren Wilmot, the CEO of 7-Eleven said the company would cooperate with workplace regulator the Fair Work Commission, which recently launched an investigation into the mass underpayment of 7-Eleven staff, its third such review into the company's practices in the past seven years. 

7-Eleven, who use franchising to expand their business, have since announced controversial plans to buy back stores from any franchisees who are unhappy with their business output.

Head of UNI Commerce Alke Boessiger said, “All people living and working in Australia, regardless of nationality, have the right to legal wages, working conditions and fair remuneration for their work. UNI fully supports the SDA in ensuring that 7-Eleven workers receive their due compensation.”

“We welcome the decision of 7-Eleven management to work together with the Fair Work Commission to rectify the situation in Australia, albeit with some degree of circumspection due to the widespread nature of this practice of underpayment.”

SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said, “We also suspect underpayment of superannuation and a host of other things that have been going on for 7-Eleven workers simply because they’ve been unable to put their hand up and tell their employer that they are being mistreated.”

The SDA will help workers take legal action to win back unpaid wages and see that there is a number of back-pay claims for people who have been exploited and paid below their award wage due to their vulnerable position in society. The SDA have also set up a helpline for any workers who feel like they have been underpaid or mistreated, which you can view here.

CEO of 7-Eleven Mr Wilmot denied that this was company policy, saying, “The viability of the 7-Eleven business model is in no way, never has been and never will be, dependent on franchisees underpaying their staff. This does not let any franchisees doing the wrong thing off the hook, because we will pursue them to repay any money owed to former or present staff.”