Manish and Anshu Mehra have started a legal action against the franchise owner of a 7-Eleven store at Epping North, Victoria.
The convenience store allegedly exploited them by underpaying and making them work beyond their allotted number of hours,
The couple claims they were paid well under the award rate in cash at the store managed by their brother-in-law Lahkwinder Singh.
They have filed a statement of claim in the Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne against Mr Singh and LD Income Trust and Ell Dee Income Trust, of which Singh is a director.
It is alleged Manish is owed $248,384 in lost wages and super, penalties and annual leave between 2010 and March 2016.
Manish allegedly worked shifts of up to 12 hours for $10 to $12 an hour in cash, which is well below the award rate.
In a similar claim, Anshu is claiming nearly $90,000 for her services between 2011 and January 2016.
Manish says his brother-in-law sponsored them to migrate to Australia and they used to live in their house at least for a year.
He claims, during his job tenure, he had no idea about awards and penalty rates. "I trusted him,” he says.
He said he also told about the underpayment and exploitation to a district manager at 7-Eleven in 2014.
"The sad thing is nobody was listening, not even 7-Eleven ... We gave our souls to the stores. We worked like slaves and no one cared. 7-Eleven didn't care," he said.
7-Eleven's wage repayment program did not work in their favour as it rejected couple's $300,000-plus compensation claims on the basis of the "direct family relationship to the franchisees alleged to have been facilitating the underpayment".
A spokesman for 7-Eleven said a process was in place for the individual cases where compensation for relatives was in question.
"All claims were assessed on their merits, he said.
7-Eleven Chairman Michael Smith claims more than $150 million had been repaid to thousands of workers whose claims of underpayment were found genuine.
A joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation in 2015 found up to two-thirds of 7-Eleven stores could be underpaying workers.
Employers and employees seeking assistance can visit www.fairwork.gov.au or contact the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.
