7-Eleven has been in damage control since a joint investigation by Fairfax Media and Four Corners revealed widespread wage exploitation of staff across its franchise network of 620 stores. Senior executives from the company as well as 7-Eleven workers who have been victims of wage fraud will appear at a Senate hearing in Melbourne on Thursday. Some 7-Eleven stores may be running as one-stop ''visa factories''. Credit:Arsineh Houspian Under the scam, some student visa-holders are even enrolled in courses at colleges linked to 7-Eleven franchisees. One Sydney franchisee, who Fairfax has chosen not to name, is a campus manager of a private, little-known college based in the small office of a migration agent above a shop in the Sydney CBD. The franchisee is believed to have offered places in his education courses, which then lead to a student visa, in return for a $40,000 fee.

Those students are then employed at his 7-Eleven stores, which are now in the sights of the Fair Work Ombudsman for underpaying staff. Fairfax Media also understands the Department of Immigration and Border Protection is keeping an eye on the visa-issuing activities of the franchisee in the wake of Fair Work's investigation into his 7-Eleven business. Several workers have told Fairfax Media that if they complained about their working conditions they were threatened with losing their jobs and being reported to immigration authorities. Another franchisee, based in Newcastle, is understood to have made thousands of dollars "selling" 457 visas to workers in 2012. In return for the money, the franchisee would sponsor the employee's immigration application.

One former employee says he "bought" a visa for $25,000 and was forced to work up to 80 hours a week for $14 an hour. "Last year they terminate me without any notice." The employee asked that his identity be protected but he says the franchisee would show the employee status on the payroll as full time but the staff were not getting the full-time salary or benefits including holiday pay. When asked whether 7-Eleven head office was concerned about the alleged visa scams, a spokeswoman for the company said: "If that was the case we would be horrified and we would do anything in our power to stamp it out, reporting any instance to the Department of Immigration." It can also be revealed that a former 7-Eleven "state franchisee of the year" who has run afoul of immigration authorities and been found by a court to have underpaid staff is now running a consultancy business targeting 7-Eleven store owners. Brisbane-based Mubin Ul Haider, who previously won 7-Eleven's franchisee of the year for Queensland, placed a series of ads for his consultancy business on social media and trading site Gumtree just days after being fined by the Federal Circuit Court for underpaying staff at his 7-Eleven store in Brisbane.

"I (Mubin Ul Haider) committed to manage best franchise business," the ad reads. Mr Ul Haider started "sponsoring" workers on 457 visas in February 2012. Two years later the Department of Immigration launched action to ban him after finding evidence he was underpaying his workers. In August 2014, he was banned from sponsoring visas for two years. Mr Ul Haider ceased being a franchisee in 2014. The spokeswoman for 7-Eleven declined to confirm during which month of 2014 the company and Mr Ul Haider parted ways. Mr Ul Haider did not respond to inquiries. Prakash Kumar, who won a Fair Work Ombudsman case against Mr Ul Haider, says Mr Ul Haider offered to sell him a visa in 2012 but he declined. "He charged … $40,000 to $70,000 to the max, I have heard," he said.

Mr Kumar is still in contact with the workers who bought visas from Mr Ul Haider. He says some of them had paid for the visa on their credit card, some had taken a loan from overseas to pay him. Mr Kumar said when he worked for Mr Ul Haider he often didn't pay staff for months at a time. He recalls finding one employee rummaging in the bins for old sandwiches because he hadn't been paid for eight weeks. Another stood in front of the store with a placard saying "This store hasn't paid me for three months, please help".