7-Eleven: The Price of Convenience

In August 2015, Adele Ferguson and ABC Four Corners broadcast The Price of Convenience — an investigation that would expose one of the most significant wage theft scandals in Australian corporate history.

The investigation revealed that 7-Eleven franchisees across Australia were systematically underpaying workers, many of them international students on temporary visas who were particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Workers were being paid as little as $10 an hour — roughly half the legal minimum wage — while franchisees falsified payroll records to conceal the fraud.

Ferguson's reporting drew on months of undercover work, interviews with dozens of current and former employees, and analysis of payroll documents obtained from multiple stores. The investigation found that the wage theft was not isolated to a handful of rogue franchisees — it was widespread, and the company's business model appeared to make it almost inevitable.

The franchise model required franchisees to pay 7-Eleven a percentage of gross profit, leaving many with insufficient margin to pay workers legally. Rather than address the structural problem, the company had allowed — and in some cases encouraged — franchisees to falsify records.

The broadcast prompted immediate action. The Fair Work Ombudsman launched an investigation. 7-Eleven's chairman and CEO resigned. The company established a compensation fund that ultimately paid out more than $173 million to underpaid workers.

The investigation also sparked a broader national conversation about wage theft, the vulnerability of migrant workers, and the responsibilities of franchise companies for the conduct of their franchisees. It led directly to legislative changes strengthening protections for workers in the franchise sector.