The conga-line of reports about wages fraud involving foreign workers continues to grow with Fairfax today revealing that Dominos Pizza has engaged in widespread rorting of Australia’s migrant visa system:
[More]…visa fraud has emerged as part of a wider investigation by Fairfax Media into country’s biggest pizza chain that has uncovered a business model in which many franchisees struggle to survive and workers are underpaid.
The price varies from $30,000 to $150,000 depending on the visa, the job on offer and the worker’s nationality.
For franchisees engaging in this illegal practice the scheme offers lucrative sideline revenue to prop up low-income stores.
“This is gross exploitation that extends beyond underpayments,” says Professor Allan Fels, who chairs the Migrant Workers Taskforce.
He believes the sponsorship arrangements indicated an “alarming” extent of abuse…
It is illegal to ask for, receive, offer or provide a benefit for visa sponsorship. The Department of Immigration said it takes breaches of visa obligations very seriously – penalties include two years’ imprisonment and fines of up to $324,000…
Fairfax Media spoke to a number of workers on visas from China and India who agreed the practice was common. Most were too afraid to speak publicly.
Consumer advocate Michael Fraser and his colleague Maddison Johnstone recently visited 70 Domino’s stores across the country and found a number of stores filling store manager positions with permanent residency sponsorships…
If workers complain, their sponsorship is likely to be cancelled, inevitably leading to deportation unless a new sponsor can be lined up.
How much more evidence is required before the Turnbull Government acts on the widespread exploitation and rorting of Australia’s visa system?
This rorting was outlined in all of its hideous glory in the recent Senate Education and Employment References Committee report entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders, which noted that Australia’s Working Holiday Maker and student visa holders were “consistently reported to suffer widespread exploitation in the Australian workforce”.
The Committee also noted that undocumented foreign workers were eroding labour standards for Australian employees:
The committee received evidence that undocumented work by migrant labour has resulted not only in the severe exploitation of highly vulnerable workers, but also impacted Australia’s labour markets, including placing downward pressure on the wages and conditions of Australian workers and undercutting the majority of legitimate employers that abide by Australian workplace laws.
The Committee also took direct aim at the 457 visa system and recommended sweeping reforms.
Late last year, Fairfax revealed that foreigner workers were involved in more than three-quarters of legal cases initiated by the Fair Work Ombudsman against unscrupulous employers, suggesting that rorting and exploitation are widespread.
Similarly, back in June, ABC’s 7.30 Report documented systemic fraud within Australia’s working and student visa programs (summary post here).
Herein lies one of the great contradictions of the Turnbull Government. While it has sought to cruelly persecute the small number of asylum seekers arriving by boat, it has done little to address the many thousands of migrant arrivals to Australia by plane that are being routinely exploited by employers and undermining overall Australian working conditions.
The systematic abuse of Australia’s visa system is harming the prospects of local workers; harming small businesses that do the right thing; harming the temporary foreign workers being exploited under slave-like conditions; and harming the integrity of the tax system, which is losing revenue via the black economy.
When will the government close down the rorting and restore integrity to the visa system? Australians are growing tired of the flagrant disregard for Australian law.
unconventionaleconomist@hotmail.com
