Australia’s foreign worker visa system has surely hit farcical proportions.
First, there’s the widespread exploitation of foreign student workers, as revealed in no uncertain terms by the joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation into 7-Eleven’s labour hiring practices, along with revelations that international student colleges have taken cash kickbacks in return for helping overseas workers and students win Australian visas using fake qualifications (see here and here).
Then there’s Australia’s flawed temporary “skilled” 457 visa system, which has seen foreign workers flood into the cities to work in professions that are either not particularly “skilled”, in short supply, or critical to the economy, such as cooks/chefs, cafe/restaurant staff, call centre/customer service, and accounting, 80% of whom have not undergone any kind of labour market testing to determine whether an Australian is available to do the job.
Now, the Senate has released its interim report into Australia’s temporary work visa programs and found that the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa system has also been subject to widespread rorting, with “stark” reports of “systemic abuse” of the WHM visa program, including the deliberate and systemic underpayment of wages, excessive work hours, and fraudulent record keeping:
…it was observed that labour hire agencies in overseas countries line up full-time work for their nationals in Australia before those nationals even enter Australia.
The exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers on WHM visas and the role of labour hire contractors and sub-contractors in the systematic abuse of the WHM visa program were brought to life in stark terms during the committee’s inquiry.
The committee received evidence over several hearings about labour hire companies recruiting workers overseas in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Recruitment typically occurred via Facebook advertisements containing information about work opportunities at certain meat processing plants in Australia…
The migrant workers detailed a series of breaches of Australia’s workplace laws including the deliberate and systemic underpayment of wages, long shifts of up to 18 hours without overtime payments, a lack of standard record-keeping such as wage slips, and false and misleading timesheets designed to conceal the actual hours worked by migrant visa holders. The workers also provided evidence about deductions for accommodation in sub-standard conditions in a share house…
The committee received evidence that certain sectors of the economy such as hospitality are notorious for non-compliance with workplace laws and are governed by precarious work norms…
In this regard, the committee notes that the extent of exploitation associated with the WHM and student visas in particular also raises questions about the degree to which the exploitation of temporary migrant workers is systemic rather than just an issue associated with a few rogue employers.
As I keep pointing out, the Department of Employment’s latest skills shortages report revealed that skills shortages have all but vanished, with “more than enough applicants with relevant qualifications, or appropriate skills and experience, for vacancies in almost every occupation”. It also noted that “in 2014-15, there was an average of 13.6 applicants for each skilled vacancy (15.8 for professions and 12.1 for technicians and trades), of whom an average of 2.2 were considered by employers to be suitable”.
So based on the Department of Employment’s own analysis, the case for the large scale importation of foreign workers is thin. Most of these jobs could be filled locally with a little bit of training.
With unemployment likely to rise significantly over 2016 and 2017 on the back of falling mining investment, falling dwelling construction, and the closure of the car assembly industry, the Government would do well to clean up the labour migration system before bitterness over foreigners “taking our jobs” escalates.
