By Anthony Main, UNITE Secretary

In late August a joint Fairfax and Four Corners investigation shone a spotlight on one of Australia’s biggest corporate scandals. The convenience store giant 7-Eleven was exposed for being complicit in wage theft worth tens of millions of dollars.

The rort commonly known as the ‘half pay’ scam was first exposed by UNITE, the fighting union for fast food and retail workers in Victoria, back in 2008. At that time UNITE was approached by a group of 7-Eleven workers from Geelong. They complained that the franchisee they worked for was manipulating wage records and underpaying them by half.

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