Protect migrant workers now, Allan Fels says

The federal government cannot delay any longer the tough laws it promised to protect migrant and seasonal workers, the former Migrant Worker Taskforce chair says.

Allan Fels has called on the federal government to implement tough laws it promised to protect migrant and seasonal workers. Picture: Supplied

The federal government cannot delay any longer the tough laws it promised to protect migrant and seasonal workers, including jail terms for systematic exploitation, former Migrant Worker Taskforce chair and ACCC boss Allan Fels says.

In the wake of revelations that many seasonal workers lose two-thirds of their pay in excessive deductions, Professor Fels told The Australian that it was imperative the taskforce recommendations – accepted by the federal government more than two years ago – be implemented.

“The problems especially regarding migrant farm workers have got worse since the report,” Professor Fels said. “It’s time to enact this legislation, promised before the last election … every day that passes, bad behaviour continues and spreads wider, making the law enforcement task more difficult every day,” he said.

Employers found to have engaged in deliberate and systemic underpayment of migrant workers could go to prison under the taskforce recommendations.

Professor Fels said criminal sanctions would send “a clear signal to unscrupulous employers that exploitation of migrant workers is unacceptable, and the consequences of doing so can be severe.”

Currently, the Fair Work Act includes only civil penalties for breaches.

Calls for stronger legislation and enforcement have intensified after The Australian revealed that some seasonal workers earning $900 a week were left with only $300 after deductions for accommodation, transport, airfares, visas and water containers; and that more than 1200 seasonal workers had absconded from their employers in the past year alone, a tenfold increase from five years ago.

In 2019, then industrial relations minister Kelly O’Dwyer accepted in principle all 22 recommendations in the Fels report, saying the government had no tolerance for those who repeatedly and deliberately underpaid workers, but the recom­mendations were never legislated.

Professor Fels said the government must stick to its firm commitment, made before and after the last election, to implement all the recommendations. “We need stronger enforcement powers; nothing has changed,” he said.

“There was some understandable delay because the proposed law got caught up in wider negotiations between the government and the unions, but those negoti­ations have collapsed. The legislation is important in its own right and should go ahead.”

The taskforce recommended giving the Fair Work Ombudsman more powers including the same information-gathering powers as other business regu­lators such as the Australian Competition & Consumer ­Commission.

Last week, The Australian revealed that not a single prosecution had been launched by the FWO against any “approved employer in the Seasonal Worker Program” – usually labour hire companies – in the past four years.

The last significant attempt by the FWO to prosecute exploitation under the program – in 2014 – ended with labour hire contractor Emmanuel Bani walking away without even reimbursing the wages that the 22 workers had lost. He was fined $304,949 but he paid just $490, arguing that he could not afford any more.

“The FWO operates under restricted legislation; the present law is not sufficient to deal with problems,” Professor Fels said.

Even the word “ombudsman” in the title suggested a mediator rather than an enforcer, he said: “Bring in a tough cop.”

The migrant taskforce was set up in the wake of the 7-Eleven scandal, in which the convenience store chain was found to have engaged in endemic wage theft of up to 20,000 workers, with some earning as little as $5 an hour.