Foreign workers, international students being paid in sushi at Melbourne restaurants

MELBOURNE restaurants are ripping off foreign workers and international students, sometimes paying them with nothing more than sushi.

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MELBOURNE restaurants are ripping off foreign workers and international students, sometimes paying them with nothing more than sushi. Other workers are getting as little as $7 an hour.

Deakin University student, Minna Ma, 25, told the Herald Sun she had worked for five hours at a Melbourne franchise sushi store, receiving no pay except four sushi hand rolls she had made herself.

“The hand rolls themselves were nice, but with no pay, I was not very happy,” she said.

The Chinese student replied to an online advertisement for work at $10 an hour, and was disappointed when the sushi store owner backtracked after the shift was completed.

“The boss was so mean and said because I had no experience I needed to learn for a ­period of time without any salary, and only sushi,” she said.

Melbourne restaurant ­insiders said gross underpayment was rife at restaurants in Chinatown.

While the minimum wage for a full-time adult is $17.29 per hour, many workers are getting cash-in-hand wages of less than half of that, without super, holidays or sick leave.

The owner of an eastern suburbs Chinese restaurant admitted this illegal practice was widespread.

“We pay new workers $8 cash and over time that goes up to $10,” the owner told the Herald Sun. “Staff pay depends on daily profit and our profit is very low.”

But an international student, Vhiheng Liu, 25, who worked at the eastern suburbs restaurant, said he felt forced to accept an $8 flat rate because his poor English made it hard to secure work elsewhere.

“I had to work there because I needed money to ­support myself and even though I knew it was low pay, it was still money,” Mr Liu said.

Several sources say Melbourne’s famously cheap dumplings that sell for as little as $6.50 a plate would skyrocket in price if workers were paid the minimum wage.

Angela Li, director of popular city restaurant, Dumplings Plus, said: “A plate of dumplings could go up from something like $10 to $20.

“There’s a real dilemma here because we sell our dishes at a very low price,” she said.

Secretary of hospitality union United Voice, Jess Walsh, said it was inundated with calls from vulnerable workers being underpaid.

“International students work long hours without breaks — up to 10 hours at a time — without night or weekend rates or overtime,” Ms Walsh said. “International students have become our invisible army of low-paid, highly exploited workers.”