The Fair Plate website fairplate.org.au, established by the Hospo Voice union, allows customers to consider what it's like for the people behind the scenes when choosing where to eat or drink out.

Several Wollongong venues have appeared on the website, drawing a variety of comments and ratings from excellent to otherwise.

Read more: Things don't always have to be 'that way' in hospitality

Fair Plate is part of the campaign against the systematic underpayment of staff - called wage theft by unions - by numerous hospitality venues including some of the country's highest profile restaurateurs.

Hospo Voice director Karma Lord said the ratings could also help workers decide if a venue was a good place to accept a job.

"We wanted to show what's really going on behind the scenes at people's favourite restaurants, bars and cafes," she said.

"Often you want to go out to a hospitality venue and have a good time but behind the scenes hospitality workers are fighting really hard just to have their minimum legal rights met.

"There's an epidemic of wage theft happening across the country."

Hospo Voice is an online branch of the United Workers Union established to try and connect with workers in the notoriously transient, casualised and under-unionised industry.

Ms Lord said more venues were listed as word spread.

"We're in an age of digital communication - workers may be afraid to speak up while at work, which they are; it's hard to be a whistleblower at work," she said.

"But you can go online and you can go onto all kinds of online forums and discuss these things. On Fair Plate you can do it anonymously and we often find people are making comments about businesses they have recently left."

Businesses could also get accredited and display a "Fair Plate" sticker in their window.

"We launched Fair Plate [to] see if workers would go on, and rate venues to give workers a chance to see what venues are like before they got jobs there ... and also to give customers a chance to make choices that support workers in the right way," Ms Lord said.

"We'd encourage venues to come to us if they'd like to be certified."

We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.