The Fair Work Ombudsman’s (FWO) annual report shows that it launched 76 wage underpayment cases in 2020-21, compared with 54 in the previous financial year. The FWO also recovered more than $148m on behalf of victims of wage theft during the financial year, compared with just $30m three years earlier.
The annual report notes that many underpayment cases are either inadvertent or deliberate; with the latter instance often involving the exploitation of vulnerable workers such as migrants. From The Brisbane Times:
Often smaller businesses… showed a “blatant disregard of the law” and exploited often vulnerable workers, such as migrants who struggle to speak English or who are afraid of having their visa status exposed.
