Domino's CEO Don Meij has admitted up to 2400 of the pizza chain's staff were underpaid while blasting whistleblowing former franchisees as blackmailing "criminals".
Mr Meij had previously refused to reveal the number of workers who missed out on wages despite numerous requests from Fairfax Media.
Speaking after the company's share price fell on the back of lower than expected profit and wage fraud concerns, he attempted to downplay the underpayments.
"On average over the three years, it was just over 800 workers per year," he told ABC Radio Brisbane on Thursday morning.
"Which you know, once again when you put it into perspective, whilst we employ 14,000 people, we actually over the year, with casual workers, would have employed north of somewhere - and we don't have the exact figures - 20-25,000 team members."
The company previously said it had "recovered" $4.5 million from franchisees, which would mean employees were shortchanged, on average, about $1900.
Meij again promised to pay back all employees but admitted that process was not yet complete.
Fairfax Media spoke to one franchisee whose workers were yet to be repaid despite Domino's recouping $200,000 from him.
The company said four franchisees had been terminated for wage fraud over the three-year period and another 22 had left the system over underpayment issues.
Mr Meij again defended the company's $5 pizza deal and franchise profitability in the wake of a Fairfax Media investigation that uncovered widespread underpayment of wages, a delivery scam deliberately underpaying penalties and the illegal sale of migrant sponsorships.
The Domino's boss said he was "embarrassed" by a "small minority" of store owners doing the wrong thing but rejected claims the company's business model put pressure on franchisees to do the wrong thing.
"That is just the allegations of the guilty," he said.
"So here we have people who have done the wrong thing and they're not taking responsibility for their actions and decisions.
"They blackmail us upfront and say well we're not paying this back or we're going to the media.
"They then go to the media and they're made out as if they're whistleblowers or heroes.
"These are the criminals who did the wrong thing, so that's just absolutely absurd."
Speaking at Wednesday's half-year results, Mr Meij said there had been 456 spot checks at its stores over the past three years and 102 store audits, 42 of which were ongoing.
The company claimed to have investigated 88 complaints, with 25 still under review.
Mr Meij refused to guarantee there would not be more underpayments in the future but promised those responsible would be "exited".
He said the company would "open our doors" to anybody who wanted to do an external audit of the business.
"We have nothing to fear. We have nothing to hide," he said.