The Labor Party says any foreign 7-Eleven workers who breached visa rules while working for one of the company's franchise stores should be given an amnesty.

The ABC's Four Corners program uncovered widespread exploitation of 7-Eleven staff that has been likened to modern slavery.

Most 7-Eleven workers are foreign students on restricted visas, allowing them to work 20 hours per week, but many are being forced to work longer hours than they are allowed, putting them at risk of deportation.

Labor senator Deborah O'Neill has called for the Government to provide amnesty for the students working beyond allowed hours.

"Well, clearly it's got to be cleaned up. This cannot be allowed to continue," she said.

"What I'm calling for is for the Government to actually provide an amnesty for the people who are currently working at 7-Eleven stores who have been caught up in a scam of wage fraud."

7-Eleven's management put the blame for the exploitation on its franchisees, but Four Corners revealed head office was compliant with the wage rip-offs.

The company has announced an independent review into the claims.

Labor now wants 7-Eleven executives to front a Senate inquiry into visa fraud.

"Every Australian who has ever bought anything at 7-Eleven feels perversely negatively affected by the fact that we've been shopping at a place where people who have been working have been, you know, treated essentially as second-class citizens and have been wage slaves to people who've exploited them," Senator O'Neill said.

The union that covers the convenience store industry — Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) — has been accused of not doing enough to protect 7-Eleven workers.

But the SDA's national secretary, Gerard Dwyer, said his union had tried to communicate with the workers for many years with little or no success.

"This whole visa, or abuse of the visa system, that appears to be taking place, has meant that employees inside 7-Eleven operated behind a veil of silence," he said.

The SDA has now set up a hotline and website to help 7-Eleven workers prepare claims.

"The employees that have put their hands up, I compliment their bravery; and what we've been trying to do in response to that is set up access points for employees outside of their workplace," Mr Dwyer said.

"And hence, we've put in place the helpline, the 131 STA national hotline.

"We will actually be launching within the next 24 hours a website where 7-Eleven employees can go and register their issues confidentially.

"And then we'll be taking up those issues and working with whatever authorities that we need to, be it the Fair Work Ombudsman or actually prosecuting underpayment claims in the relevant jurisdictions."

7-Eleven has agreed to pay out any franchisees who wish to sell their stores now that the revelations have come to light.