Supermarket cleaners allegedly underpaid

Australia's workplace watchdog is taking legal action against a cleaning company which allegedly underpaid four Tasmanian workers more than $21,000.

Sub-contractor OzKorea Pty Ltd supplied cleaners to Woolworths supermarkets in the northern suburbs of Deloraine, George Town, Riverside and Mowbray, with three international students under the age of 20 among those who were allegedly paid an hourly rate as low as $14.

"(Director Sung Gun) Hwang allegedly provided Fair Work inspectors with false time-and-wages records purporting to show employees had been paid higher rates than was actually the case," the office of the Fair Work Ombudsman said in a statement issued on Thursday, adding the matter is due for mention in the Federal Circuit Court on August 4.