When Sonja Mamic first started working for Appco, she was told if she worked hard enough she could make at least $250,000.

"I thought if I just wait three years, I'm going to be on $300,000 a year. Imagine that. I'm 19. It would be the best," she said.

The 19-year-old was not paid a wage to sell raffle tickets and badges on behalf of charities, but instead earned a 20 per cent commission for every product she sold.

"We'd go in in the morning at about 6:30 and then you'd usually finish at the earliest at 7:00pm and the latest 10, 11 o'clock at night. And that was six days a week," she said.

Ms Mamic was under immense pressure to hit her sales target every week.

"A bad week was if you got sick or if you just didn't make the sales. You'd go out and you'd only sell $500 of things and then you'd make 20 per cent of $500."

She and her team were also expected to travel to remote towns every second week to sell merchandise.

They were given $70 by Appco to cover accommodation, but they were expected to pay for fuel and other expenses.

"We were all told, just keep your receipts, you'll get reimbursed, just hang on to them, it will be fine. You can claim it all on tax. But none of that ever happened."

She said they usually could only afford one hotel room and would sneak past the hotel manager so he did not know how many people were sleeping there.

"There was one time when we were in Port Macquarie ... and the accommodation was booked for four people. But there were eight of us going," she said.

"So we had a guy sleeping on one of the couches, one guy sleeping on the floor, two guys in the bed and then four of us in single beds. We had to hide our cars and park them elsewhere."

Ms Mamic said when they failed to reach their targets, they were forced to roll around the floor in a so-called "sluggie race".

"There would be a tally and then at the end of the week, everyone who had a 'sluggie' would have to have a race. So you'd lie on the floor and wiggle around until you got to the other side. And everyone would just laugh and watch you."

She eventually decided to leave Appco when she realised she was being underpaid.

"I had no money, I put it all into this business. There was a time when they said I could start a new campaign, I just had to save $2,000. I put all my money in there and saved it and used my personal savings for everything I needed to do.

"I didn't even get to do this campaign. I lost all my money. I came back and I had nothing."

Toby Yates, 22

After expenses, Mr Yates said he earned $1400 over seven months. ( Supplied )

Toby Yates said he was grateful Appco gave him a foot in the door and thought the job would teach him valuable skills for his future.

But he said he soon began to suspect he was being exploited.

"It's just pain. You're going to stand out there, you're going to be mentally taken advantage of, you're going to be physically taken advantage of, there's going to be days where you stand in the rain for eight hours and you make $6 a day for eight hours work," he said.

"You spend more on petrol getting to the site. You spend more on lunch than you make in a day."

Mr Yates said he was uncomfortable that employees who failed to reach their sales targets were forced to wear a chicken suit.

"In front of 60 people, including other teams and other offices in there, they'd make you stand in the middle of a circle and put a chicken head on and then they'd make you dance to the chicken song for about 20 seconds in front of 60 of your peers."

Staff who were even 30 seconds late to work were sometimes forced to lie on the floor in a ritual called "the salmon".

"They'd all start the salmon chant and what would happen is you'd be in a suit and tie and you'd be on the floor and you'd be rolling around like a salmon. Sometimes they even had 'the salmon' on a table."

Mr Yates said he was subjected to both rituals, and felt he had no choice but to participate.

"It was embarrassing having to do them. But if you didn't, the repercussions were even worse. You're made to feel like you weren't part of the group if you didn't do these things and you were made to feel like you were by yourself if you went against their decisions."

After seven months at Appco, he decided he had had enough.

"I did my tax return after seven months working with Appco, and after seven months I earned $1,400 after expenses."

He convinced a fellow Appco employee Neva to leave with him.

"Neva left work and came over with me and we applied for a job and we both got it it together. It felt like we'd just been released from prison. And a week later, I won a Bali trip with all expenses paid. So when I won it, I gave Neva a ticket for coming with me and showing that faith in me as well."

Mr Yates said he felt like he was taken advantage of because he was young and inexperienced.

"They take advantage of Australia's youth entering the workforce, that's really what they do," he said.

"All the youth coming out of Australia, needing to gain experience, needing to get their foot in the door, they take them straight in, give them a positive mindset, give them all these things, and they promise them the world and then at the end of the day, you turn around after seven months and realise you've earned $1,400."