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.

Schedule 4020 of the Migration Regulations is a provision that should terrify every migration agent.

Below are two recent decisions from the Federal Circuit Court- both applicants failed in their appeals.

Below is an extract from the first judgement:

The AAT has asked Migration Alliance to distribute the following message:

From 1 October 2015, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal will only accept applications for review made to the Migration and Refugee Division on M1, M2 and R1 paper forms with design date 07/15, or those generated by the online lodgement system.

This means application forms with a design date before 07/15 are not approved forms and any applications for review made on these forms may not be valid.

We received the following email from a fellow agent and have been given permission to publish.  We would appreciate it if any RMAs are aware of any case-law or precedents on this scenario.  All comments and feedback welcome.  If anyone would like to contact Gurpreet directly with feedback his email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. :

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Gurpreet Singh (Director)

KPG Global Visas Services Pty. Ltd.

Australian & New Zealand Registered

Principal Migration Agent 

(MARN: 1569140)

NZ License No: 201500594"

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.