The Migrant Justice Institute has called on the Australian Government to provide multi-year funding for community legal services to provide dedicated support for migrant workers.
These services would include general education about employment law and workers’ rights, as well as legal assistance where required.
In our submission to the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership, we draw on data from our national surveys and forthcoming report on the small claims system to make evidence-based recommendations for reform. We outline how our survey data shows that exploitation of migrant workers is widespread, and ongoing.
Yet despite this, nine out of ten migrant workers suffer wage theft in silence and take no action to enforce their rights. Our research shows that community legal centres, unions and migrant worker centres bring about the best outcomes for vulnerable workers seeking to enforce their rights. However, CLCs and others cannot meet demand for services and it is extremely rare for migrants to go to court to enforce their rights.
OUR RECOMMENDATION
The Government should provide dedicated, multi-year, recurrent funding for Legal Aid Commissions and Community Legal Centres to provide employment law assistance to vulnerable workers. This would cover all aspects of employment and equality law, including:
wages and entitlements | dismissals | sexual harassment | bullying |
equality law (anti-discrimination and general protections) | victimisation
And would take the form of:
Community legal education
Legal advice and ongoing casework
Program design, monitoring and evaluation