Australia has taken steps to protect the rights of migrant workers as well as business owners who do the right thing when employing individuals from overseas.
The rights of all workers are equally important, whether they are new to the country or born and raised in Australia. To ensure this, the government recently passed reforms aimed at reducing the exploitation of temporary workers.
The Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill passed the Parliament with unanimous support. From 1 July, anyone who exploits a worker because of their visa status will face prison time. Penalties and fines will triple, and employers who mistreat workers will be banned from hiring any worker on a temporary visa.
The change is part of the Government’s Migration Strategy, which has a mandate to ensure a fair go in the workplace by complementing the jobs, wages and conditions of all workers, and preventing migrant worker exploitation.
When announcing the change, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles said business owners who do the right thing will benefit from this reform because it will minimise the impact of competitors who act unethically and underpay employees so they can offer more competitive price points.
The Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill is aimed at preventing situations where individuals:
- Experience wage theft and are afraid to report it for fear of being deported
- Are too scared to speak to a union or call in sick
- Lose access to their passports
- Are promised support on a pathway to permanent residency in return for being subjected to poor working conditions
- Experience sexual harassment or assault as a migrant worker.
When announcing the new bill, Minister Andrew Giles explained how research found up to one in six recent migrants are paid below the minimum wage. He said this means, “too many employers are faced with a difficult choice – whether to pay their workers the lawful amount and sacrifice market share, or join the race to the bottom.”
“We cannot have a country where workers fear reporting workplace exploitation because they fear losing their ability to stay in the country.” – ACTU President Michele O’Neil.
Support for the Initiative
The Australian Council for Trade Unions has voiced its support for the Bill, saying too many employers use the exploitation of temporary migrant workers as a business model. ACTU President Michele O’Neil explained, “The exploitation of workers in Australia on temporary visas hurts all workers. It exposes the impact of a migration system that had shifted away from permanent migration towards a guest worker approach where employers control workers’ passports and paycheques. These changes are important as we cannot have a country where workers fear reporting workplace exploitation because they fear losing their ability to stay in the country.”
Penalties for Non-Compliant Organisations
The Minister explained how it will be a criminal offence to coerce someone into breaching their visa condition, and to use a worker’s visa status to force them to accept exploitation conditions in the workplace.
Penalties under the Migration Act will be significantly increased, and new ‘prohibition notices’ will be introduced to prevent employers and individuals from further hiring people on temporary visas if they are found to have exploited migrants.
Citing a case study, the Minister discussed how one company was fined and barred from sponsoring workers for two years. Previously, the business would have still been able to hire workers on temporary visas. However, the new framework will restrict them from hiring temporary visa workers as well.
These harsher penalties are positive news for employers who recruit migrant workers and do the right thing; it creates a more ethical and competitive environment, especially in industries where worker exploitation is a known issue.