ANZ bank will be targeted in a Sydney law firm’s class-action after thousands of 7-Eleven convenience store workers were underpaid across Australia.

The convenience chain was forced to pay back millions of dollars to thousands of workers after it was revealed in 2015 that there’d been rampant wage theft across hundreds of stores.

The class action will seek damages from both the company 7-Eleven Stores and ANZ, which loaned many people the money they used to buy their franchise.

In a submission to a federal parliament inquiry, Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt alleged the chain practised a “de facto ethnic selection of franchisees” in order to select store owners less likely to blow the whistle on employment practices, Fairfax Media reported in early 2016.

The lawyer told AAP on Thursday the class action was, however, broader and based on a sweeping review of 7-Eleven’s “entire system and the ANZ funding”.

7-Eleven issued a statement over the potential class action on Friday, asserting is intends to “vigorously defend any such proceedings” based on what is known.

“We are proud of the significant efforts we have made together with our franchise network to continually adapt our business, and the positive results that are being achieved. We intend to continue these efforts,” the convenience chain said in a statement.

More to come…

Access exclusive analysis, locked news and reports with Inside Retail Weekly. Subscribe today and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.