Hack can reveal several workers at a musical instruments chain were underpaid up to $20,000 each and despite a lengthy investigation by the workplace regulator, they still haven't received a cent.

Six workers at Allans Billy Hyde store in Sydney have told Hack they've been underpaid between $9,000 and $20,000 each.

Former employee Tristan Courtney-Prior said he realised three years into working full time at the store that he was being underpaid.

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Whatsapp Former Allans Billy Hyde employee Tristan Courtney-Prior is still waiting for $17,926.47 in back pay

"It was mid 2016, there was an announcement that the hourly rate was going up by Fair Work and I noticed that ours didn't go up in step with it and then when I looked back I noticed it hadn't the whole time I'd been employed," he told Hack.

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"Then I spent a very long few weeks creating Excel spreadsheets and going through the payslips.

It turned out I was underpaid about $17,500.

Emails to the staff members seen by Hack show the company admitting to the underpayments.

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Whatsapp This is the email Tristan received from Allans Billy Hyde's Chief Financial Officer promising back pay.

"It feels like you've been cheated or taken advantage of," Tristan said.

Fair Work Ombudsman unable to enforce company to pay

After the company missed its own deadline to back pay staff, workers went to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman is an independent body of the Government tasked with investigating and potentially taking action on workplace complaints just like this.

"At first I thought [Fair Work] was very communicative, I thought it was pretty simple because there was a lot of evidence and the company acknowledges that they owed me the money," Tristan said.

I had the evidence that they owed me the money and it seemed to be moving ahead... but from mid 2017 to where we are now, the company still has not been made to pay back the money and it's became increasingly frustrating.

After Fair Work investigated Tristan and his colleagues' case for about a year, they sent Tristan an email saying they had no power to get Allans Billy Hyde to pay.

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Whatsapp The Fair Work Ombudsman sent staff this email saying the body doesn't have the power to get the company to back pay them.

"I felt pretty empty. It had a pretty big impact on myself and my family, I was incredibly let down," Tristan said.

I couldn't believe that we live in a country like Australia with all its rules and regulations and still it seems like that's meaningless... it felt like [Fair Work] was almost there for show.

Fair Work doesn't often take legal action against companies

In the last financial year, more than 22,000 people made complaints to the Fair Work Ombudsman but only 55 were taken to court.

On its website, the Ombudsman says it only takes companies to court if there's 'enough evidence and it's in the public interest'.

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The Fair Work Ombudsman declined Hack's request for an interview but in a statement said it could not comment on this specific case.

"The Fair Work Ombudsman has a strong focus on assisting young workers, as we are aware that these workers may be particularly vulnerable in the workplace due to a number of factors, including a reluctance to reach out for help or a general lack of awareness of their workplace rights," a spokeswoman said.

"Young workers are overrepresented in disputes our agency deals with: they account for about 15% of the Australian working population, but were involved in 28% of the workplace disputes we assisted with in the 2016-17 financial year."

Court action also ineffective, underpaid staff say

Fair Work advised the Allans Billy Hyde workers to take their cases to court on their own.

One former worker - who was underpaid $19,619.62 - told Hack he followed that advice but it also proved ineffective.

"Basically the judge ruled in my favour in about three minutes... and that was early June but I'm still waiting to be back paid," he said.

There's a lot of bureaucracy a lot of essentially hurdles for Fair Work, I just think that Fair Work need to be able to enforce these rules.

Last week, Allans Billy Hyde went into voluntary administration because the company's bankrupt and can't pay back its debts.

The administrators said difficult conditions in the music industry could have caused the business to spiral downhill and they're calling for someone to buy the business.

However, there's still no information on whether staff will ever see the money they're owed.

Allans Billy Hyde did not respond to Hack's request for an interview.