Federal Court action has been launched against Australian travel giant Flight Centre today, alleging the systemic underpayment of employees — a claim the company rejects.

Key points: Five current and former employees allegedly $250,000 out of pocket

Five current and former employees allegedly $250,000 out of pocket Claim being lodged in court today says minimum wages, penalty and overtime rates, annual leave and leave loading not met

Claim being lodged in court today says minimum wages, penalty and overtime rates, annual leave and leave loading not met Flight Centre refuted the claims saying most staff earned "well above the award" with a combination of commission and "top-up" wages

The claim has been brought on behalf of five current and former employees by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and the union, Together Queensland.

Maurice Blackburn's employment law principal Giri Sivaraman said the company failed to pay minimum wages, penalty and overtime rates, annual leave and leave loading at the correct rate and had not provided the correct rest and meal breaks.

"On our calculations, in total, the employees have missed out on about $250,000, so it's quite a significant sum," he said.

"They're very brave but they're upset.

"The reality is, this is a pretty vulnerable workforce, they're often very young, they love travel and then they come into the job thinking it's going to be fun.

"Then it turns out that the pay is so low it can be a huge struggle to make ends meet."

Workers upset claim can only go back six years

One of the claimants, Sheri MacKenzie, spent more than a decade working for the company and said she was devastated to learn the degree to which she may have been underpaid.

"For me, being there for almost 13 years, it was like 'wow, really'?" she said.

Mr Scott said a new EBA is in place that has improved the situation. ( Supplied: David Hannah )

"I've worked with this company for such a long time and I don't even get paid what I should be getting paid?

"I don't even know how anybody could do that to an employee.

"The law states that I can only legally go back six years and we're looking at a bit over $42,000.

"That's a massive amount, so if I could go back my almost 13 years, we'd probably almost get to six figures."

Together Queensland state secretary Alex Scott said Flight Centre had since implemented a new enterprise agreement, "that probably overcomes most of these problems".

"But what we're looking at is a historical pattern that occurs over a number of years that we'll be pursuing through the court action that's being launched this morning."

Flight Centre rejects allegations

In a statement, a spokesman for Flight Centre said the company refuted the claims.

"We do, however, categorically reject any suggestion that our people were paid below minimum wage under our previous wage structure," he said.

"Our people earn a combination of fixed pay and commissions.

"If their commission earnings were insufficient to reach the minimum award they were topped up to that level under the wage structure that these comments appear to relate to.

"Most people earned well above the award under that structure and did not require a top-up."