7-Eleven: wage fraud cover-up from head office

Widespread wage abuse at 7-Eleven

Joint Fairfax / ABC Four Corners investigation reveals widespread wage abuse at 7-Eleven stores across Australia.

• Held up twice in two days for $10 an hour
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• Stores in strife, financial struggle revealed

A massive cover-up of employee exploitation is being run out of 7-Eleven corporate headquarters, a joint investigation by Fairfax Media and Four Corners can reveal.

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain has stored thousands of extracts of on-the-record interviews with its franchisees on a central database over the past year, some revealing repeated findings of wage fraud and other illegal activity.

"Falsifying time sheets and rosters is illegal and considered fraud," a head office review of a franchisee in Strathmore, Melbourne says.

It was written on July 31 after 7-Eleven head office conducted a store review of 225 franchises across the country.

Falsifying time sheets and rosters is illegal and considered fraud.
7-Eleven review of Melbourne franchise

As revealed over the weekend, explosive internal documents show over July and August, 7-Eleven's head office conducted a payroll compliance review of 225 stores.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

It found that a staggering 69 per cent of stores had payroll compliance issues, including falsification of records and rosters in one month alone.

An insider says it would be even higher if all the stores' rosters had been cross-checked against CCTV footage.

The database also shows head office has been reviewing and finding wage fraud at its stores for at least the last 12 months.

Head Office Responds

7-Eleven Australia was forced to respond to the allegations over the weekend, saying it was "extremely disappointed that a number of franchisees have chosen not to meet their obligations as employers".

smh.com.au 31Aug 2015

Slave labour, a corporate policy in Australia since 1788.

As usual no repercussion from the 'authorities' or sanctions against 7-Eleven.

As a result we do not purchase of recommend any products from 7-Eleven