100 franchisees show interest in legal action against 7-Eleven
The lawyer in charge of preparing the class action has confirmed that 40 store owners had formally signed up for the class action suit, while another 60 had expressed interest.
An independent panel was created to investigate the alleged wage fraud and so far the panel has received over 1000 claims from current and former employees.
It has been reported that thousands of 7-Eleven workers, past and present, have endured wage exploitation. The wage fraud bill could be as high as $300 million according to some estimates.
The panel is expected to start making compensation payments to the eligible workers before Christmas.
Yesterday was the deadline for a profit sharing agreement between head office and franchisees.
The deal would involve 7-Eleven head office paying for the first $25 million in back-pay claims, franchisees would pay the next $5 million and all payments after this will be split evenly between the franchisees and head office.
The company has not yet released the final number of franchisees that have signed up for this deal.
