"Allan Fels says 7-Eleven's $173m wage theft bill should have been higher", 30 October 2020

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has paid back $173 million to more than 4000 victims of endemic wage theft at its franchise network, but former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Allan Fels said that amount represented only a fraction of the chain's unpaid wages.

[...]

Professor Fels said when the scheduled repayments to workers reached $165 million "they decided that was enough and they effectively closed the scheme".

"But it was clear that there was another $100 or $200 million to come and they didn't want that."

[...]

The company said at the time it moved the repayment process in-house so it could apply its own standards and subject claims to more scrutiny.

"We have every intention of processing every claim. My one caveat on that is we're only going to pay valid claims." 7-Eleven's chief executive Angus McKay said in 2016.

Mr McKay said [...] the internal process had been widely promoted and claims were assessed independently by Deloitte.

"This process has always been about ensuring we paid workers what they were owed."

[...]