A new report from the Senate Economics Committee, entitled “Systemic, sustained and shameful”, notes that wage theft is “widespread”, “systemic and often normalised” across Australian hospitality, retail, farms and universities. Migrant workers, in particular, are routinely exploited:
Wage theft on a broad scale is a relatively new phenomenon and creates significant problems for Australian labour market regulation. The rate of unlawful underpayment complaints and media reporting increased markedly from around 2015, with mounting evidence that wage theft practices have become widespread in the hospitality, retail, horticulture, franchise-heavy and higher education sectors.
A 2015 joint ABC-Fairfax exposé of extensive underpayments in 7-Eleven franchises drew attention to the issue, with over 3,600 workers claiming over $150 million in unpaid wages, many of them vulnerable international students.
