Two interesting reports were released over the weekend highlighting how the tidal wave of temporary migration into Australia over the prior decade contributed to the nation’s record low wage growth.
The first ABC report examines the widespread exploitation of international students in the workplace, which it says pushed down wages and conditions in the sectors they were employed:
- International students are “routinely exploited”, paid below the legal minimum wage and often cash-in-hand. However, they seldom complain to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) because:
- International students are financially desperate.
- “Any job is better than nothing”.
- Some students worked more hours than they were supposed to under their visa and were concerned it may get them in trouble and risk deportation.
Professor Alex Reilly, director of the University of Adelaide’s public law and policy research unit, summarises the situation as follows:
Working for less than minimum entitlements suppressed wages for everyone and could create an “underclass of workers who are exploited”…
A survey conducted by Professor Reilly and his colleagues found 56.9 per cent of international students “felt lucky that they had a job in the first place and were grateful to their employer”.
The survey also found that 32.4 per cent of international students who were paid below the minimum hourly wage felt happy with their payments “because their friends were getting paid a similar amount”.
Professor Reilly also noted that the reduction in international student numbers will force employers to offer higher wages to attract staff:
“With the lower number of international students coming, particularly in the horticulture industry, there’s a real desperate need for workers”…
“One of the reasons that you can’t find workers, is there is now a culture of underpayment, which means workers are just not going to come”.
“So now that there is suddenly a shortage of workers, it’s maybe a good time to talk about wages and why they need to be pushed up.”
A separate report published in The SMH over the weekend described the plight of temporary Chinese meat workers imported into Australia on ‘skilled’ 457 work visas in 2017. These workers were also routinely exploited and underpaid:
- The Chinese workers were told via WeChat that “Productivity means there’s no easy job, here’s not a charity” and “women need to see themselves like men, men need to see themselves like beasts, beasts need to see themselves as robots”.
- Abattoir work is tough, repetitive, dangerous and physically debilitating, but pays only between $19 and $24 an hour. As such, few locals want to do the work.
- Owners of recruitment agencies with access to pools of foreign workers eager to build a new life in Australia are making pay dirt selling the dream of permanent residency.
- “People from poorer countries desperate to gain permanent residency in Australia… makes them vulnerable and willing to accept treatment most of us would not”.
- Chinese workers pay recruitment agents $40,000 to $70,000 just to secure an Australian visa and a job.
- Some Chinese workers “said they were willing to pay the money only after being promised that it would lead to sponsorship for permanent residency in Australia”.
- It was also common for further deductions to come out of their Australian wages.
- One Chinese worker said “factories use us like slaves”.
- The fear of losing their job and the prospect of deportation is a strong incentive to remain compliant.
- The “foreign workers said they would continue to put up with whatever they had to until they could secure a future in Australia for their families”.
It doesn’t matter what industry one looks at the story doesn’t change. From hospitality, IT, construction, farms and abattoirs the cry from Australian employers is always the same: allow us to bring in foreign workers so that we can be ‘productive’ and make profits. And every time we see the same results: exploitation of workers, depressing of real wages by using those foreign workers, and ultimately the failure to invest in local workers.
The whole visa system needs to be overhauled. Otherwise, systemic exploitation will continue, workers’ bargaining power will be eroded, and Australian wage growth will remain suppressed.
