A 7-Eleven whistle-blower has described the billion dollar franchise as having been “built on something not much different from slavery.” The reality is that the convenience store chain will get away with its systematic abuse whereby it underpaid thousands of workers if staff are not offered visa protection for speaking out, notes a report on the ABC.

Last month, the ABC's Four Corners program revealed “widespread exploitation of 7-Eleven staff, including underpaying them and forcing them to work longer hours than they are permitted under visa conditions. Thousands of workers have been exploited in what is being described as one of Australia's biggest employment scandals.

“The majority of the chain's workers are foreign students on restricted visas and only allowed to work 20 hours per week, but the investigation found… more than two thirds of 7-Eleven's 225 Australian stores had payroll compliance issues, with claims many franchisees would face financial ruin if staff were paid correctly,” noted the report.

7-Eleven chairman, Russell Withers has denied that there is widespread wage rorting and claims,  'relatively few' franchisees are at fault. An independent panel led by former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) boss Allan Fels has been set up by the company to help staff recover their wages. Anyone who has been affected by this can contact the panel on 1800 619 802 or online at www.7elevenindependentpanel.deloitte.com.au.

Labor has urged the Government to give amnesty to students forced to breach visa rules. But Giri Sivaraman from law firm Maurice Blackburn, told the ABC that many are not coming forward, with overseas students concerned they would lose their visas if they admitted to working too many hours. Some reports allege that many workers were paid $10 an hour before tax – well below the award rate of $24 per hour.

Businesses in Adelaide have recently come under greater scrutiny with the Fair Work Ombudsman announcing that it will audit up to 125 businesses in Adelaide’s CBD and North Adelaide over the next three months.

Fair Work said that its inspectors will check that employers are paying the correct minimum hourly rates, penalty rates, allowances, loadings and providing appropriate meal breaks. Compliance with record-keeping and pay-slip obligations will also be monitored.

Recently, the operators of an Adelaide business were fined a total of $6460 after failing to pay an $850 on-the-spot fine for not issuing pay-slips to two overseas workers. This followed penalties of $3500 and $1500 respectively against Adelaide company Mobizone Pty Ltd and its part-owner Raymond Kebbe after they failed to pay a $550 on-the-spot fine issued by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Dragon Tea House Pty Ltd and its sole director Xia Xu Zhou were issued with an Infringement Notice for not issuing pay-slips to two employees at the Chinese restaurant they previously ran on Pulteney Street.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James says inspectors determined that an Infringement Notice imposing an $850 on-the-spot fine was a proportionate response to the workplace contravention by Dragon Tea Houe Pty Ltd. However, the fine was not paid by the due date.

A week of strikes are planned by immigration staff beginning at international airports in Cairns, Perth and Darwin. Walk-offs are also scheduled in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from Monday.

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) national secretary Nadine Flood told the ABC that staff were protesting a Federal Government bargaining policy, which she said would affect allowances compensating workers for weeks at sea, firearms, fitness and working conditions.

"Immigration and Border Force workers are facing the loss of up to $8000 a year from their take-home pay under the Federal Government's draconian bargaining policy," she said.

"These hard-working men and women undertake important, difficult and sometimes dangerous jobs on behalf of their community.

"The Government and the department have had more than a year to sit down with the union and work out a fair deal that protects the rights, conditions and take home pay of these hardworking people.

In what may well be Peter Dutton’s last major move as immigration minister, legislation was introduced to the Parliament to make it a criminal offence for a sponsor to be paid by a visa applicant in return for securing a migration outcome.

The Migration Amendment (Charging for a Migration Outcome) Bill 2015 amends the Migration Act 1958 ('the act') to introduce a new criminal and civil penalty regime that will make it unlawful for a person to ask for, receive, offer or provide payment or other benefits in return for a range of sponsorship related events. The bill also allows visa cancellation to be considered where the visa holder has engaged in such conduct, referred to as 'payment for visas' conduct.

'Payment for visas' conduct is not currently unlawful. However a key recommendation of the independent review into the subclass 457 program recommended that legislation is introduced to strengthen the integrity of the program by allowing action to be taken where 'payment for visas' conduct has occurred.

In his second reading speech, Mr Dutton noted that 'payment for visas' conduct may occur through an employer offering to sponsor a visa applicant in return for a payment or benefit. It may occur before the applicant applies for a visa or during the visa holder's stay in Australia. Evidence obtained through monitoring sponsors indicates that the sponsor and applicant are complicit in the majority of 'payment for visas' activity. Employers may also exploit an employee by requiring payment in return for an ongoing sponsorship.

The bill will amend the act to make it a criminal offence for a sponsor or other third party to ask for or receive a benefit in relation to a sponsorship related event. The offence will be punishable by a maximum of two years imprisonment or a fine of up to 360 penalty units, which currently equates to $64,800 for an individual person or five times higher—$324,000—for a body corporate.

The bill introduces civil penalties applicable to a sponsor, visa applicant or any other third party who asks for or receives, or provides or offers a benefit in relation to a sponsorship related event. The maximum pecuniary penalty is 240 penalty units, which currently equates to $43,200 for an individual person or five times higher—$216,000—for a body corporate.

Australian universities have once again emerged as being among the best in the world according to the QS World University Rankings released earlier this week.

Australian National University maintained its place as the highest ranked local institution and climbed six places to become the first Australian university to get in the world’s top 20. Five Australian universities made the top 50.

In a statement on the rankings QS said that Australian universities' performance was remarkable because of their strength in all five of the broad academic disciplines which are judged, being among the top five countries in each of the subject areas.

It said Australia was particularly strong in arts and humanities with three universities - ANU, the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne - in the world's top 20 in this field.

It noted further that Australia's technical universities also showed strength with all five improving their performance on last year and in the top 300 worldwide.