Fernanda was underpaid while she was working as a cleaner.(ABC News: John Gunn)
Fernanda* was one of around 80 international studentsunderpaid by a cleaning companythat went into liquidation and set upunder a new name a short time later.
It isa practice known as phoenixing, where companies go into liquidation to avoid paying debts, such as entitlements owed tostaff.
I felt exploitedand depressedand started going to a psychologist because they make me so feel useless, Fernanda said.
A recent Senate inquiry found migrant workers like Fernanda wereparticularly vulnerable to underpayment and exploitation and mostdid notseek help.
As employment groups call for the next federal government to ramp up migration to plug widespread labour shortages, a national coalition of organisations is calling for better protections for thoseworkers to prevent wage theft.
Along with the Uniting Church and Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria, the co-signatorieshave written to the major partiesasking them to act onthree key reforms recommended by two recent Senate committeesto protect migrant workers from exploitation:
·Visa protectionsformigrant workersthat report exploitation or wage theft to the Fair Work Ombudsman, and claims made through the courts
·An affordable and accessibledispute resolution mechanism for workers torecover unpaid wages and entitlements
·Extend theFair Entitlements Guarantee(FEG) to all employees, including those on temporary visas
At Fernanda's workplace, themajority of her colleagues decidednot totake legal action orlodge an underpayment claim against their former employer.
Almost the whole workforce was international students and many were concerned about taking any action because of the possible risk to their visas, Sharmilla Bargon, coordinator at Employment Rights Legal Service, said.
Sharmilla Bargon says the current legal system allows for exploitation and discourages workers from seeking help.(ABC News: John Gunn)
Ms Bargonsaid whistleblower-type protections would encourage moremigrant workers to recover underpayments.
The exploitation of migrant workers is widespread, she observed.
We commonly see people come in and talk to us and they've been paid as little as $12 an hour.
Ms Bargon said the reforms would also act as a deterrent to unscrupulousemployers who use deportation as a threat.
We see employers threatening to report workers to the Department of Immigration with trumped-up visa breaches, Ms Bargon said.
This works: migrant workers are scared to lose their visas and be made to leave Australia.
A survey of 5,000 migrant workers commissioned by the Migrant Justice Initiative in 2019found three-quarters of participants had been paid less than the minimum wage.
In a separate study of around 2,200 migrant workers who acknowledged underpayment, only one-in-10 took action to recover money owed.
Only 3 per cent had contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman and more than half recovered none of their unpaid wages.
Fernanda was repaid $20,000 by the company's administrators after getting help from the Employment Rights Legal Service, but Ms Bargon said other temporary visa holders she has worked with have not been sofortunate because there was often no cash left to pay employees.
Ms Bargon said extending theFair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) would protect those who could not recover money through a company administrator.
The FEG is a federalgovernment scheme that can cover certain unpaid employment entitlements to eligible employees who lose their jobs due to the liquidation or bankruptcy of their employers.
Thesemigrant workers arepaying tax but temporary visa holders are not eligible for the program, Ms Bargonsaid.
Economists and small businesses back protections
Economists and business groups expect migration to becritical to addressinglabour shortages.
Jarrod Bell, chief economist at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), said the next federal government would need to address the issue of stronger protections for migrants.
This is probably a debate that we need to have, in the wake of COVID, he said.
Obviously, we saw with such a significant proportion of temporary migrants in the economy, over COVID, those people did not have the same access to supports that permanent migrants and residents had.
We need to look at where these demands are and how we meet them, and how we make sure that we don't see exploitation.
Alexi Boyd, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), has also backed strengthening protections for migrant workers.
Alexi Boyd says small businesses that deliberately underpay workers should be punished.(ABC News: John Gunn)
We are fully in support of anything that protects more businesses' ability to compete with others, and part of that is making sure that everything is fair and equitable, she said.
“So the small businesses that are working really hard to pay the right wage, figure out the industrial relations, figure out the award wage, and do the right thing by their workers are not disadvantaged by others doing the wrong thing.
International student Ali*, who was underpaid around $80,000 while working as a casual security guard in Sydney, agrees.
“The government should take action on these types of people who are just ripping the international migrants and they are just saying that if you do like this one, we will just cancel your job,” he said.
Ali was regularly required to work three consecutive 10-hour shifts with only an hour off between.
He was fired when he questioned his employer over pay.
When he made a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman, his former boss came to his house and told him to stop legal action or they would get him deported back to Pakistan.
“Strong laws should be there and there should be proper checks and balances,” he said.
The major parties did not respond to the ABC's request for comment.
*Names of case studies have been changed for legal reasons
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-20/legal-employer-groups-call-protections-migrant-workers/101061588
