Two operators of the famed 7-Eleven stores were fined $150,000 for exploiting international workers from Zimbabwe and India.

The six Zimbabwe nationals and one Indian national were reported to be international students from their respective countries.

According to an investigation spearheaded by the Fair Work Ombudsman, the operator-owner of the stores in Park Street, South Yarra and Moorabool Street, Geelong intentionally forged information to the 7-Eleven head office. The faked information included the number of hours each student had worked and the students’ pay rates.

Toorak couple Hao Chen and Xue Jing were fined too for the same premises. They were obliged to pay $20,000 and $10,000 respectively in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. Their private company, Bosen Pty Ltd, was fined further $120,000.

Magistrate Kate Hawkins ordered the couple to back-pay the students a total of $90,000. The employees’ underpaid amounts are ranging from $1342 to $40,583.

Hawkins said Chen was the "directing mind and will" of Bosen regarding the underpayment of the workers, and his wife Jing engaged in the underpayment of two of the students.

"The conduct was a systematic and major exploitation of highly defenseless workers. The exploitation affected young international students, four of them who were teenagers at the time and who had only recently arrived in Australia," Hawkins related.

Flat hourly rates of between $9 and $12 were paid to the students, aged 18 to 26. Legally they are entitled to be paid more than double of the amount for their numerous working shifts. Some students were unlawfully required to perform several weeks of unpaid 'on the job training' before they could even start their jobs at 7-Eleven.

Ms Hawkins explained that the penalty aims to "serve as a warning to others".

Executive director Michael Campbell of Fair Work Ombudsman conveyed that the public would not tolerate deliberate exploitation.

"International students and other foreign workers can be vulnerable because they are often not fully aware of their workplace rights in Australia, so we take instances of exploitation very seriously," Campbell said.

More than $32,000 was recovered for 62 underpaid workers in an audit done including 56 stores of 7-Eleven in Melbourne and Geelong last year.