Up to 15 Australian gold miners have reportedly lost their jobs after performing the Harlem Shake whilst underground.

The group are believed to have lost their six-figure salaries after a video of them doing the viral dance craze surfaced online, the West Australian newspaper reports.

The 30-second clip, which already has 30,000 YouTube views, shows eight miners performing the convulsive dance.

An unnamed sacked worker revealed that up to 15 people were fired, including those who watched but chose not to participate.

According to the paper, owner Barminco said that the stunt had breached safety regulations in the dismissal letter given to the men.

The reported sackings have stirred up a huge response from the online community.

One viewer wrote: "Give their job back to them."

Another said: "There is no hazard in this video. I mean I know a little about mining and this isn't can cause problem underground. Except for the guy who is touching the water in the floor. But this didn't show any safety concern. Unless goofing off is not allowed in that mine."

A Facebook page calling for the reinstatement of the "sacked WA Harlem Shake Miners" has since been set up.

The Harlem Shake, a new meme pays homage to phenomenon which has been around since the 1980s.

The idea is simple: a 30-second video set to the tune Harlem Shake by New York-based DJ Baauer.

For the first 15 seconds of each video, one person typically dances while everyone else in the room remains still. Then, once the baseline drops, everyone else goes crazy.

Up to 4,000 videos of Harlem Shake variations are uploaded on to the internet daily.

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