Redfern Legal Centre calls for stronger current visa protections for migrant workers

Andrew Giles, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, has said that migrant worker exploitation demands a serious and considered response from government.¹

RLC welcomes change to protect migrant workers. We are part of a national coalition of over 40 community organisations led by the Human Rights Law Centre and the Migrant Justice Initiative calling on Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil to urgently bring widespread migrant worker exploitation out of the shadows. We are asking the Federal government to establish whistleblower protections that would enable migrant workers to report exploitation without risking their visa.

RLC worked with the Migrant Justice Institute to design a workplace justice visa: a short-term visa with work rights that will allow employees to pursue a claim before they leave Australia.

Such change is much needed.

The Employment Rights Legal Service (ERLS) is a state-wide free employment service and a partnership between the Inner City, Kingsford and Redfern Legal Centre. ERLS client Fei told the SBS that she felt she couldn’t complain about being underpaid. She was paid $13/hour and felt under a lot of pressure because if she lost her job, she couldn’t afford to study in Australia. Many of our migrant worker clients tell us the same story: they want to recover their underpaid wages but they are more concerned about preserving their visa status than acting against exploitative employers.

Many migrant workers stay silent for fear that they will put their visa and stay in Australia at risk. When migrant workers reach the end of their stay and could potentially safely pursue a labour claim without risk to their job or visa, they are often required to return home. All information about exploitative employers is lost and the worker never recovers their wages. The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has limited enforcement capacity and takes a small number of cases each year. Most migrant workers are extremely reluctant to seek the regulator’s assistance. In 2017, the Federal Government attempted to address this issue by implementing an Assurance Protocol. Under this scheme, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) commits to generally not cancel a worker’s visa for breach of work rights if the worker is assisting the FWO with its inquiries. The Protocol has not been effective, with only around 15 migrant workers using it each year.²

Because of this regulatory failure, employers know they will not be held to account. Underpaying migrant workers has become a successful business model and, in some industries, this has led to a two-tiered economy.

The Albanese Government is conducting a wholesale review of Australia’s migration system which will report in April.

We are hopeful that the government will adopt our proposal and offer effective visa protection and safeguards to migrant workers.

¹ Sarah Martin, Immigration minister Andrew Giles on Labor’s plan for building pathways to permanency, (10 September 2022) The Guardian

² Migrant Justice Institute and Human Rights Law Centre (February 2023) ‘BREAKING THE SILENCE, A proposal for whistleblower protections to enable migrant workers to address exploitation’