PHILADELPHIA — Cumberland Farms Inc. officials fired more than 30,000 convenience store employees after they were questioned by company security for alleged theft, according to a published report.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday that records it obtained and corroborated in interviews with former employees showed that Cumberland Farms attempted to question 30,903 cashiers as part of a systematic effort to recover inventory losses by demanding money from employees accused of theft.

Virtually all were fired, the newspaper reported.

Fourteen former Cumberland Farms employees have filed a lawsuit, saying the company has a policy of falsely accusing cashiers of stealing and then threatening and coercing them into signing confessions.

The company, based in Canton, Mass., denies the allegations.

Cumberland Farms kept at least two sets of records on each employee questioned from at least 1976 to 1989, according to the Inquirer. One set of records assigned a serial number to identify the employee accused and listed the reason for questioning, his or her employment status and whether the accused paid any money to the firm.

“Each person fired was given a number,” Edward F. Breau, a former Cumberland Farms security official, told the newspaper. Breau said he left the company after refusing to question an employee without evidence.

Since Aug. 1, the newspaper has reported that 275 former Cumberland Farms employees have said they were falsely accused of theft. They said that company security officials would take them into a back room of the store and threaten them until they signed confessions.

The civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J., accuses Cumberland Farms of extortion, fraud, racketeering, malicious prosecution and wire and mail fraud.