After 7-Eleven promised to pay back exploited workers, a man chosen to make sure they got their money says the company was "spooked" by the size of the payouts.
Dr David Cousins and Professor Allan Fels processed hundreds of claims of underpayment before they were sacked on Wednesday, with 7-Eleven choosing to bring the independent process in-house.
Dr Cousins said 7-Eleven tried to take control of the process as the number of exploitation claims rose, despite promising it would be independent and anonymous.
"The company was spooked by suggestions it might have to pay out in excess of $100 million," Dr Cousins said in a statement on Saturday.
"It started to push back on very large determinations and sought to have a direct influence on the claims determination process."
That included demanding the names of workers - many of whom were threatened with deportation unless they worked for half pay - despite telling the media and the Senate the process would be anonymous.
7-Eleven told the media on Thursday it would continue to pay back "valid" claims but Dr Cousins said the company's new standard of proof was too high to meet.
He said 7-Eleven was demanding documents like pay slips that franchisees had deliberately destroyed or falsified, meaning few of the claims would have ever succeeded.
"7-Eleven deserves the condemnation that it has received for unilaterally terminating the panel," Dr Cousins said.
"It has shown itself again to be untrustworthy."
Prof Fels also lashed out at 7-Eleven on Wednesday, saying the company was trying to get out of paying back workers.
He believes most of 7-Eleven's 20,000 workers over the past decade have been underpaid by about half.
Mr McKay said the panel was sacked because it didn't want to act on "intelligence" from franchisees that workers were trying to defraud them.
But Prof Fels said when 7-Eleven finally brought forward the fraud claims, they were not substantiated.
So far 421 workers have been paid $16.7 million since the process began eight months ago, with another 1931 being assessed and a further 1400 about to start.
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