When hitting the shops, you probably home in on price and quality.

Key points: The Fair Work Ombudsman found 20 per cent of textile, clothing and footwear businesses were failing to correctly pay their workers

The Fair Work Ombudsman found 20 per cent of textile, clothing and footwear businesses were failing to correctly pay their workers A business owner joining a push for greater ethical transparency in clothes manufacturing says immigrants are particularly vulnerable

A business owner joining a push for greater ethical transparency in clothes manufacturing says immigrants are particularly vulnerable More than 100 companies have received accreditation from Ethical Clothing Australia, a not-for-profit group policing the treatment of garment workers

But shoppers are being urged to question whether those labouring to make their clothes and shoes are being treated fairly.

Nga Huynh is one of the few workers still manufacturing garments in an Australian factory.

She is happy with her current employer in Melbourne's north but has been exploited in the past.

"My previous workplace, my boss didn't pay my wages in total, nor did they pay my pension," she said.

"Then they went out of business and I didn't receive weeks of my pay."

She now works with 40 others at a Thornbury factory making jeans for the brand Nobody Denim.

Most of her colleagues are older women from migrant backgrounds, making them potentially vulnerable to exploitation.

Nga Huynh is one of the few remaining clothing manufacturers working in Australia. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

The Fair Work Ombudsman estimates more than 30,000 people are employed in Australia's textile, clothing and footwear industry.

A series of audits by the Ombudsman found 20 per cent of businesses were failing to correctly pay their workers.

Nobody Denim's factory manager Gary Campbell said exploitation had increased in recent decades as local jobs were lost to cheaper overseas labour.

"Whilst we have our own factory and we do the right thing by the people that work here, there's a lot of exploitation in the industry," he said.

He said rather than having all garment workers under one roof, these days many Australian workers survived by performing part of the manufacturing process at home.

"Immigrants particularly are very vulnerable in this industry," he said.

Gary Campbell, factory manager of Nobody Denim, said exploitation in Australia's clothing industry had increased. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

"[They are] getting paid small amounts of money and not getting paid the right amount they should be."

This fragmented workforce makes it harder catch out employers taking advantage of their staff, according to Casey Thompson from the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union.

"Australian made doesn't actually always mean more ethically made," she said.

"We see widespread wage theft; we see widespread superannuation underpayments and workplace health and safety risks at play in factories around the country."

The union has teamed up with the not-for-profit organisation, Ethical Clothing Australia, to police the industry and provide consumers with greater peace of mind.

Workers making jeans at Nobody Denim's Thornbury factory. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

Nobody Denim is one of more than 100 companies, including well-known labels such as Cue Clothing, Carla Zampatti and Anthea Crawford, whose products have received ECA accreditation.

Ethical Clothing Australia's national manager Angela Bell said the voluntary accreditation program maps a business's supply chain to protect the rights of Australian factory and home-based workers.

"If it has got the ethical accreditation it means that they're actually upholding and protecting the rights of the garment workers in Australia," she said.

Angela Bell is the national manager of Ethical Clothing Australia, an organisation tracking the treatment of garment workers. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

While most of the clothing and footwear in Australian stores is made overseas in countries such as China, there is a growing push to revive local manufacturing, Ms Bell said.

She said it was partly due to a rise in consumers demanding to know whether products had been ethically produced.

"Some of the businesses that are getting accredited with us now are new businesses, they're choosing to make in Australia," she said.

"They don't want to have a model that operates offshore and all the higher risks that can come from that."

The Ark Clothing Company in Melbourne displays Ethical Clothing Australia tags on its garments to show workers have been treated fairly. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

The work of Ethical Clothing Australia is being highlighted at this week's Melbourne International Fashion Festival, with several events focused on ethical fashion.

ECA is 20 years old this year and only receives funding from the Victorian Government after Commonwealth money was cut in 2012.

The organisation wants the Federal Government to reinstate ongoing funding of two million dollars in the first year to expand its work interstate.