UNITE welcomes statewide 7-Eleven audit
UNITE welcomes the announcement from the Fair Work Ombudsman of a statewide audit of Victoria’s 7-Eleven stores.
The 7-Eleven audits will start this month. This comes after a year long campaign where UNITE exposed various 7-Eleven franchisees for systematically underpaying their staff.
As stated in the Herald Sun:
“Dodgy convenience store owners ripping off vulnerable workers are in the gun of the workplace watchdog. The Fair Work Ombudsman will conduct a statewide audit of 7-Eleven stores after spot checks in Melbourne and Sydney found 168 workers had been underpaid a total of $162,000.
Five 7-Eleven stores in Melbourne’s CBD have been asked to pay 88 workers $112,000 in back pay and a sixth store owes 12 staff 1,000 hours of annual leave.
The Fair Work inspectors and 7-Eleven franchisers will jointly scrutinize records of 60 Victorian convenience stores to check staff are being paid properly.
Issues identified included workers not be paid for hours worked and losing penalty rates.
A 7-Eleven spokeswomen said individual franchisees would co-operate.”
The Ombudsman anticipates their investigation will be conducted over several months. UNITE will also spend this time visiting stores and encouraging workers to come forward about their underpayment and join UNITE.
In order to cover all Victorian stores we will need help from volunteers. If you would like get involved contact Mel on 0400 588 202 or email the UNITE office.
We will start our coordinated visits Friday 9th October.