Australian employers to face harsh punishments for exploiting migrant workers
Coercing a migrant worker to breach their visa conditions will be made a criminal offence with harsh new penalties for wrongdoers as part of Labor’s crackdown on exploitation.
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Coercing a migrant worker to breach their visa conditions will be made a criminal offence with harsh new penalties for wrongdoers, while employers who break the law will be barred from hiring temporary overseas workers under Labor’s crackdown on exploitation.
Australian Border Force will also get a $50 million boost to ensure business operators are complying with the strict new rules and further deter employee abuse, with issues like underpayment and poor working conditions currently a rampant problem across the nation.
The federal government will on Monday unveil details of its plan to prevent and punish migrant worker exploitation, including changes that will make it easier for temporary visa holders to move away from bad employers by giving them twice as long to find a new job sponsor.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said over the past decade the nation’s migration system had drifted “deeper and deeper” into reliance on low-paid temporary migrant workers who were “routinely exploited”.
“We are in consultation on systemic changes to our migration system which will ensure it works in the interests of Australian workers and businesses, and we are also doing the work necessary to ensure that no one who comes to this country is exploited or abused,” she said.
An estimated one in six migrant workers are paid below minimum wage in Australia, while the group is 40 per cent more likely to be underpaid than longer-term residents or citizens with the same skills and qualifications.
The government’s proposed reforms will include repealing section 235 of the Migration Act, which advocates have argued prevents exploited workers from reporting their employers’ wrongdoing for fear of being prosecuted for working unlawfully.
Labor will also change regulations to give sponsored migrants with various temporary skills shortage visas and employer sponsored regional visas greater ability to move jobs by increasing the time allowable between employer sponsors to 180 days.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said there was a “crisis” of migrant worker exploitation in Australia.
“When migrant workers are being underpaid it hurts all of us (by) driving wages and conditions down for everyone,” he said.
“These reforms will help workers speak up and target those employers who do the wrong thing.”
Business groups, unions and other experts will be consulted ahead of future migration reforms planned by the government, which will include whistleblower protections for temporary visa holders who speak out against bad employers and strengthening the “firewall” between the Fair Work Ombudsman, which receives complaints, and the Home Affairs department, which handles visas.
About 20 per cent of anonymous reports and disputes resolved by the Fair Work Ombudsman involve migrants, and up to 80 per cent of the legal actions initiated by the oversight body in recent years involved migrants, according to the Grattan Institute.
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