Indigenous Territory workers poised to sue for stolen wages

Lawyers poised to launch NT class action to recover millions in stolen wages following a $190 million settlement in Queensland.

Lawyers are poised to launch class action to recover millions in wages stolen from indigenous Territory workers following a $190 million settlement of a similar lawsuit in Queensland.

LAWYERS are poised to launch class action to recover millions in wages stolen from indigenous Territory workers following a $190 million settlement of a similar lawsuit in Queensland.

Representatives from Shine Lawyers visited potential claimants in Darwin, Katherine and Timber Creek last week to investigate whether their wages had been illegally withheld in government-controlled trusts.

In the wake of the Queensland settlement, Shine’s head of class actions, Jan Saddler, said she now expected to commence action in the NT “shortly”.

“The Queensland settlement has spiked interest in those states where we have been on the ground the last two months listening to the histories of people in WA and the NT who were impacted by the ‘protectionist’ regime,” she said.

“The people we have spoken to worked difficult and physical demanding jobs often when still children and in cruel and harsh conditions.

“They worked as stockmen, farm hands, laundry assistants, kitchen hands, labourers and domestic workers.”

Ms Saddler said the majority of indigenous workers Shine had spoken to said they had been paid little or no wages at all, while some were offered bread and beef in lieu of payment.

“The histories related by almost all indigenous Australians we have spoken to is that they started working as children on the mission and were then sent to other locations, often a station, where they continued working under the same or similar conditions as adults,” she said.

“They were not allowed to leave and if they tried they would be brought back to the mission or station and punished. These actions will right the wrong that has been inflicted on these hard working indigenous Australians and return lost income to the hands of these workers and their families who lost valuable financial support from a government that marginalised them and financially disadvantaged the workers and their families.”

Ms Saddler has previously told the NT News more than 2200 indigenous Territorians who may have worked during the relevant period were still alive today and could be owed up to $100,000 each.

“We’re talking certainly for individual clients, potentially well into the tens of thousands of dollars and perhaps even in excess of $100,000,” she said.

The Queensland action was between the claimants and the state government but it remains unclear whether a similar suit in the NT would involve the Territory or Commonwealth government.