A Sydney lawyer has alleged 7-Eleven employed a de facto policy of ethnically screening its franchisees and, with ANZ, luring them with "easy" loans they could not repay.

Mass underpayment of employees and fabrication of payroll records within 7-Eleven franchises has been exposed by Fairfax Media and the ABC.

But in an unpublished submission to a Senate Inquiry, Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt alleges the company practised at least a "de facto ethnic selection of franchisees" in order to select store owners less likely to blow the whistle on employment practices.

Mr Levitt is a partner at Levitt Robinson and represents about 30 7-Eleven franchisees and has announced an intended class action against the company and ANZ bank.