A former 7Eleven worker has said that his compensation claim is being deliberately delayed. He has started an online petition to demand the reinstatement of the independent wage panel for a “fair compensation”.
Tejinder Singh says during his employment at five different 7Eleven stores between April 2011 and September 2014, he worked 7 days a week and at times, did 16-hour shifts for a flat pay rate of $12 an hour.
He says the company owes him nearly $200,000 in unpaid wages. However, Singh says his claim is being deliberately delayed. He says he knows many others who find themselves in the similar situation.
“I know at least thirty other employees, both former and current and none of them has received their compensation so far,” he told SBS Punjabi.
Tejinder has started an online petition to demand the reinstatement of the Independent wage panel that determined the claims of underpayment at 7Eleven stores before it was sacked in May.
Singh says without an independent panel, there’s no hope of a fair and just compensation.
“How you we expect justice from a murderer?”
“They don’t want to pay proper compensation. That was the purpose of scrapping the panel,” says Tejinder.
He says his claim is being pushed back as he is owed “big money”.
“7 Eleven owes me nearly 200,000. My case has been hanging fire since January this year when my compensation was calculated $180,000,” he said.
“But since I pointed out left-out wages for a couple of months, it has been pushed to the back-burner,” he added.
You may also like to read
'7 Eleven exploitation continues despite investigations'
Tejinder’s case is being prepared by Maurice Blackburn. The law firm is working pro-bono for the 7Eleven employees who were underpaid.
7Eleven says it is in no position to comment on individual cases due to the confidentiality involved in the processing of the claims. However, the company maintains that all the claims are being paid in a fair manner and it wants to “get it done as quickly as possible”.
“In the eight months that Fels (Allan Fels) was in operation, 420 claims were processed. In the next two-and-a-half months, that number has climbed to 600. There’s a process that’s fair and reasonable,” said Steve Murphy, 7Eleven spokesperson.
“People at Deloitte go through the claims and they are doing the job they need to do which is to verify and substantiate claims. The same role they played for the Fels panel whose work was transitioned to the Wage Repayment Program,” he added.
The spokesman added that the company has so far paid $22 million in compensation to the employees whose claims of underpayment were found genuine. There are three and a half thousand claims of underpayment.
You may like to read
Indian-origin 7 Eleven franchise owner penalised over $200,000
