"Basically, your franchisee was being squeezed, and the front-end worker was the major loser," the class
action's head lawyer Stewart Levitt told ABC News.
"[Our action] essentially encapsulated claims by franchisees that they'd been sold a
lemon."
In a statement, 7-Eleven acknowledged the settlement without admitting to any of the claims made
during two class action proceedings.
Franchisees worked for free to make ends meet
ABC News spoke to several franchisees involved in the class action proceedings.
All of them were migrants who had bought franchised stores before the revelations in 2015. None wanted
their names used for fear of recrimination or because they simply now feel exhausted by the entire saga.
One former franchisee who had operated two 7-Eleven stores told the ABC that the business model was
so unprofitable that their family used to work in-store for free.
"We cannot make money. Even my wife in some stages was not paid," they said.
"Management is 24 hours but you cannot get paid.
"I would not recommend my friends to buy into it. Unless he has a lot of family members who can help
who can work there themselves and be paid as staff."
They said they bought the two store franchises for almost $1 million and could only recoup $500,000
when they did not have their licences renewed. The couple had refinanced their mortgage to pay for
the stores originally.