They suffer silently amid dangerous working conditions and low wages
Migrant workers in Australia between exploitation of the employer or expulsion from the country
Many workers work long hours and are not paid adequately.
archival
One of the migrant workers holds up a sign that reads “Our families are suffering.”
archival
picture
Migrant workers in Australia are often exposed to dangerous working conditions, systematically low wages, and work in conditions that some call "modern slavery".
According to estimates, up to half of temporary migrant workers are underpaid.
A survey revealed that nearly 30% of respondents earned less than $12 an hour, which is half the legal minimum wage in Australia.
Temporary migrant workers represent 11% of Australia's workforce (more than 900,000 people), most of whom are stranded and international students, looking for a better future.
Michael's plight
Michael, an alias, has been living in Australia for nearly a decade.
Here he has a wife and child, friends and community, and a career.
But he is constantly faced with two inescapable choices: either be patient with exploitation so as not to lose his job, or risk losing the status he enjoys, which is to remain in the country.
He says: "The first employer was harassing me all the time, and I had to work long hours for overtime without pay, sometimes more than 60 hours per week." My stay in this country is valid.”
"I have a son who is three and a half years old, and I sacrifice everything to give him a better life, and I will never lose hope because of my son's future, but the government's policies have exhausted all my efforts and energy."
Exploit
(Michael) arrived in Australia from a country in Southeast Asia in 2013 to study cooking, and after graduation took a job as a chef on a visa.
He says that since his visa is tied to his employer, he has remained vulnerable to exploitation.
His second employer forced him to work “11-12 hours a day, six days a week, but for only 38 hours.”
He was bought by a third employer and restructured, causing him to look again for a new job.
(Michael) says that every time he moved to a new employer he had to "start over" with applying for permanent residence.
“I live in uncertainty and stability all the time, I work hard, I do everything right, but I get punished and tormented.”
Michael's fourth employer was a large hospitality company that ran several venues.
He thought that job security at a large company would put an end to the kind of exploitation he had been suffering in Australia, but was shocked to learn, soon after, that the company was under investigation for paying migrant workers low wages, and the workers were called in to provide evidence for themselves. exploit them.
He says, "None of us would have dared to do that, and if we did, we would have lost our visas, and we might be deported from the country."
When the company was later closed due to its numerous infractions against immigrant workers, Michael and all of his fellow visa holders were forced to apply for permanent residence again.
"Looking for a suitable sponsor is not easy, and I am very afraid and depressed that the same problems will happen to me again," he says.
(Michael) believes that the vulnerability of his situation, and that of thousands of other migrant workers, affects not only them, but also their families in Australia and in their places of origin.
Controversial bill
A government-proposed Immigration Amendment (Protection of Migrant Workers) bill to address the exploitation of migrant workers was promoted. This law established penalties for new criminal offenses, including a penalty for coercing migrant workers into accepting exploitative work arrangements.
It also delegates broader powers to the competent authorities to ban companies that violate the Migrant Workers Sponsorship Law.
However, critics argue that the bill is fundamentally flawed, as it does not include any protections for people who report violators of the law.
Migrant Workers Center chief executive Matt Konkel says authorities should issue temporary visas to workers who face abuse so they can report it without any fear of backfire.
“The current immigration system has created opportunities for unscrupulous business owners to take advantage of the precarious residency status of immigrants.” If they report any abuse or treatment from their employer, they will lose their jobs immediately, and they may also lose their ability to remain in the country.
This means that many are forced to make a difficult choice between reporting wage theft or maintaining an employment relationship.
In addition, many of the "temporary immigrants" have spent several years, or even more than a decade, in Australia, so "they are contributing members of our community," Konkel says.
The Migrant Justice Institute report cited a 2019 survey of more than 5,000 international students, which revealed that 38% of migrant workers did not seek help to solve a problem at work, because they believed it might affect their employment status and stay in the country.
"Ramadan" story
(Ramadan) arrived in Australia in 2018. He worked in a restaurant and the owner promised him that he would be issued a permanent work visa in Australia.
He received his first salary in cash, and paid from it the cost of accommodation, the "visa fees", and the rest he sent to his wife and daughters in his home country.
The restaurant went through a quiet period, and in January 2019 the sponsor (Ramadan) stopped paying him.
When he demanded his wages, his sponsor told him that if he wanted a visa, he should remain silent.
Days and months passed, and (Ramadan) demanded his sponsor again to pay him, but his sponsor told him that the company could not pay him and would be closed.
He asked him about his visa and he told him that he sent it to the immigration department.
When (Ramadan) contacted the department, he discovered that there was no such request.
(Ramadan)'s hopes of obtaining a visa through the employer have been dashed, and he is still wandering on his face.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the extreme injustice faced by migrant workers, as temporary visa holders were ineligible for the income-sustaining JobCare and JobSecure programs, and many migrant workers remained unemployed and without a source. Enter.
As a result, workers were actually more likely to contract the epidemic than to suffer from the exploitative behavior of their employers.
In the end, Michael believes that his harsh experience here in Australia has undermined his faith in Australia, and his chance to build a future in it.
"We've always thought Australia was a great country, but what happens to us makes us so frustrated, so depressed, so stressed all the time," he says.
And he concludes, "We are worried. We may have made a mistake by coming to her."
The precarious situation of thousands of migrant workers affects not only them, but also their families in Australia, and in their places of origin.
Not enough processors
Australia's Migrant Workers Task Force has issued 22 recommendations to address issues of migrant worker exploitation.
These include making the willful exploitation illegal, creating a small claims commission to claim workers' rights, and expanding the Fair Work Act to include immigrant employees.
The federal government has committed to implementing all 22 of the report's recommendations.
Similar policies are also being implemented by state governments, with Victoria passing new legislation to structure worker recruitment organizations, which are often implicated in the exploitation of migrant workers.
In addition, the Wage Theft Act 2020, has finally been passed in Victoria, which addresses many criminal offenses related to underpayment and data fabrication.
While these are positive efforts in the right direction, the reality is that Australia's immigration system contributes to and encourages unfair conditions for migrant workers.
Australia shattered the dreams of some workers. archival
wage theft
Migrant Workers Center Australia chief executive Matt Konkel says the bill will "make the real problem worse".
He adds that wage theft and exploitation in the workplace and others are still incredibly common, and says that more than two-thirds of workers in Australia on temporary visas confirm, based on a survey, that they receive wages below the minimum prevailing standards, and a quarter of them reported that they are being exploited in other forms. , such as exploitation in forced or unpaid overtime.
Ugly exploitation of migrant labor in Australia.
From the source
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news