The Fair Work Ombudsman will go over the books of about 120 cafes, restaurants and fast food outlets in Adelaide to check abuse of workers, particularly in the area of wages.

The audits are expected to be held in three Australian states over the next four months with the aim of verifying if employees get full entitlements including payment of minimum wages and penalty rates, as well as proper records keeping by the dining establishments.

Among the dining establishments that the Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors will visit are those in Perth's commercial business district and its southern suburbs, the north suburbs in Adelaide including those on Gouger and Rundle streets, and food courts in Darwin.

The audit is in response to higher level of complains and report of hiring of a large number of vulnerable employee such as minors, casuals and foreign workers, said acting Fair Work Ombudsman Bill Loizides.

"If inspectors find minor or inadvertent contraventions, our preferred approach is to educate the employer and assist them to voluntarily rectify the issue," ABC quoted Mr Loizides.

"The campaign will also benefit employers who are complying with workplace laws because our auditing of compliance with minimum pay rates will help to ensure businesses are competing on a level playing field," he added.

Recently, some of restaurant owners in Australia pushed for the relaxation of penalty rates for weekend work because of the high cost of wages. As a result of the penalty rates, the dining establishment owners blamed the closure of restaurants on weekends which are when diners come in large numbers.

The three large Australian banks, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac, withdrew recently their application with Fair Work Australia to remove weekend penalty rates for bank employees. The three lenders previously sought to amend the award for the banking sector and instead asked the agency to consider weekend work as part of ordinary working week for some of its branch employees.

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