Ever since the 7-Eleven migrant worker scandal broke in 2015, there has been a conga-line of stories about the systemic abuse of Australia’s various migrant worker programs and visa system.
The issue culminated last year when the Senate Education and Employment References Committee released a scathing report entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders, which documented the abuses of Australia’s temporary visa system for foreign workers.
Back in August, Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), Natalie James, told Fairfax that people on visas continue to be exploited at an alarming rate, particularly those with limited English-language skills. It was also revealed that foreign workers are involved in more than three-quarters of legal cases initiated by the FWO against unscrupulous employers.
Sadly, the reports of widespread rorting and exploitation of migrants rolls on, with one of the largest meat suppliers to Woolworths, Coles and Aldi reportedly employing hundreds of migrant workers in slum-like conditions. From The Canberra Times:
The company, Thomas Foods International, Australia’s largest family-owned meat processing operation, makes use of an army of migrant workers at its Tamworth processing plant. Many of these workers are living crammed into residential homes, with reports of as many as 20 living under the same roof.
Workers say they feel trapped in the houses, and risk losing their jobs by moving out.
Thomas Foods employs large numbers of migrants – estimated at more than 50 per cent of its workforce – despite the New England region having a youth unemployment rate of 19.6 per cent, above the national average of 12.4 per cent.
The company’s chief operating officer David McKay said in 2015, he preferred foreign labour because “some Australians lack the work ethic” or failed drug tests…
“Our business would not be where it is today without the 457 [visa] scheme and later on 417s,” [CEO Darren Thomas] said.
Thomas Foods stands to reap significant financial rewards from employing migrants, many come on working-holiday visas, employed at entry-level or probationary rates, and often have no chance to progress to higher grades of pay because under the terms of their visa, they can only work for one employer for a maximum of six months and are also forced to return home after a year…
Unregistered boarding houses are peppered across the residential suburbs of Tamworth, sitting among family homes and often packed with Korean and Taiwanese workers…
Behind the foreign job ads and the Facebook pages are two Tamworth locals: En-Ting Ling, known locally as Frank, and David Gao, an employment agent.
Frank is known as a “house master,” operating a number of the boarding houses around town. He works with Mr Gao, who supplies him with the tenants…
One worker, who did not want to be identified said he paid Frank $100 per week for a bed in a house with three bedrooms. Two of the rooms contained two single beds, the third had two bunk beds and the living room had a mattress on the floor.
“At first they told us everything was okay and they sent us pictures taken years ago. It looked good but the reality was totally different,” he said…
The Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union is pushing for new laws which would force Thomas Foods and other businesses to hire locally.
“Surely large employers, in particular Thomas Foods International should be looking at pathways for local kids to get into the meat industry,” said union secretary Grant Courtney.
“But they just have a focus on continuous churn of temporary international labour”…
Maybe the local kids are failing drugs tests because they can’t get a job ahead of a cheap import?
This is Australia’s post-mining boom class war in action. Little wonder that Australian wages growth is so low when employers right across the country can so easily grab migrant workers under slave-like conditions instead of training and employing locals.
The Senate report on the exploitation of temporary foreign workers was released in March 2016, and yet 20 months later there has been minimal action from the federal government, with widespread rorting of Australia’s visa program continuing unabated.
How many more examples do we need before our politicians take action and close down the various avenues to exploitation and rorting?
