Company chiefs could be hauled before a new federal inquiry into wage theft under Senate plans to investigate scandals in a forum similar to a committee that called bank chief executives to account.

The chairman of the new wage theft inquiry, Labor senator Alex Gallacher, said the parliamentary committee "won't be shy" in demanding answers from companies found to have underpaid their workers.

A Senate committee will probe wage and superannuation theft. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

The move comes two weeks after Woolworths admitted it had underpaid about 6000 employees as much as $300 million over several years – an average of $50,000 owed to each worker.

Celebrity chef George Calombaris was forced to apologise to his company's staff in July after it underpaid them by nearly $8 million, a scandal he blamed on "being creative and focused on opening more restaurants" without having proper back-office systems in place.