We undertake research and advocacy to illuminate the exploitation of international students, backpackers, skilled temporary workers and other low-waged temporary migrants working in Australia. We create a new evidence basis for understanding why most migrants can’t or don’t recover unpaid wages through government agencies, courts and corporate programs, and the outcomes for very few who do. The data and recommendations from these projects provide new ways for government agencies, businesses, NGOs and unions to tackle these challenges.
WAGE THEFT IN AUSTRALIA: FINDINGS OF THE NATIONAL TEMPORARY MIGRANT WORK SURVEY
In 2016, we conducted the most comprehensive study of wage theft and working conditions among international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants in Australia. We collected responses from 4,322 temporary migrants across 107 nationalities of every region in the world, working in a range of jobs in all states and territories. Our findings, published in the 2017 report Wage Theft in Australia: Findings of the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey, revealed that Australia has a large silent underclass of migrant workers, primarily made up of international students and backpackers, who are paid well below the minimum wage in at least 12 main industries.
Migrant workers’ access to justice in Australia
Many temporary visa holders never recover underpaid wages from their employers in Australia. Some of them never try and others hit barriers when they do. We have undertaken numerous in-depth studies of the ways in which temporary migrants can seek redress for unpaid wages (including through the Fair Work Ombudsman), the extent to which they bring claims in practice, and the outcomes of those claims. In this work, we unpack the barriers that prevent the vast majority from asserting their rights, and how experiences may differ across nationality groups, industries, and visa categories. We draw on interviews with government agencies, legal service providers, advocates, unions, researchers and individual migrant workers, focus groups with temporary migrants, data from our large-scale surveys of migrant workers, and case data on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s handling of migrant worker complaints.
wage theft in silence: why migrant workers do not recover their unpaid wages in australia
Wage Theft in Silence reveals that although the majority of migrant workers are paid well below minimum wage, very few ever take action to recover the wages they are owed. Most of those who tried to get their wages back were not successful. The report draws on responses of 4,322 international students, backpackers and other migrant workers who participated in the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey. It analyses the reasons why the overwhelming majority of participants had not sought to address their underpayment and makes recommendations for reform.
THE role of the FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN in MIGRANT WORKERS’ ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN AUSTRALIA
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has undertaken various education, compliance and deterrence initiatives directed to systemically improving conditions for migrant workers. Drawing on new empirical data, this study focuses on the role of the national labour inspectorate in delivering access to justice to underpaid migrant workers. It considers the extent to which individual migrant workers seek assistance from FWO to recover their personal unpaid wages, and the remedial outcomes of individual claims lodged with the agency. We illuminate structural factors contributing to migrants’ reluctance to engage with FWO, as well as factors contributing to low wage recovery rates for those who do contact FWO. We conclude that although these challenges are numerous and multi-layered, they are not all inevitable. Reforms should incorporate a new migrant-centred approach that recalibrates the risks and costs of seeking remedies against the likelihood of obtaining a just outcome. Findings from the study were published in Migrant workers' access to justice for exploitation in Australia: The role of the national Fair Work Ombudsman.
7-Eleven: Lessons from a business-led redress process
After media reports of widespread exploitation of 7-Eleven’s international student workforce across Australia, the company established a Wage Repayment Program. Paying out $150 million in total, this was the largest payout of unpaid wages in Australian history. Drawing on interviews with international students and a range of stakeholders across Australia, this project considers the barriers that prevent temporary migrants from accessing remedies for unpaid entitlements within existing legal and institutional frameworks in Australia. It identifies the factors that made the 7-Eleven Wage Program so unusually accessible and effective, and lessons for government institutions and future business-led redress processes. Findings from the study were published in the article Lessons from the 7-Eleven Wage Repayment Program for remedying migrant worker exploitation in Australia.
International students and the Fair Work Ombudsman
This project, commissioned by FWO in 2016, investigates why so few international students engage with FWO’s employment services despite widespread reporting of exploitation of international students in the Australian labour market. The report, published in 2017, was authored by Alex Reilly, Joanna Howe, Laurie Berg, Bassina Farbenblum, and George Tan.
International Students at UNSW: Conditions at work and access to justice
Funded by the UNSW Grand Challenge on Migration, this project examined UNSW international students’ conditions at work and access to remedies for wage underpayment. It drew on data from approximately 750 UNSW international students obtained through the Temporary Migrant Work Survey 2017. The study explored the nature of work undertaken by UNSW international students, including the hours they work, the industry and location of their work, their rates of pay and how they found their job. In order to identify appropriate services and interventions to address exploitation of working international students, it examined the factors that correlated with underpaid work and the reasons why these underpaid international students may not have sought to recover unpaid wages.
Analysis of labour migration and migrant worker rights in Australia
Temporary migration to Australia has increased dramatically over the past decade and issues related to labour conditions of temporary migrant workers have been poorly understood. We produce materials for general and specialist audiences and speak in a variety of forums on the situation of temporary migrants and the legal frameworks and social and political conditions that contribute to their precariousness.
migrant rights at work
This book by Laurie Berg, published by Routledge in 2016, is the first to explore the structural and legal drivers of temporary migrants’ precarious work in Australia. It uses detailed case studies of successive regulatory reforms in this country to explain how immigration law and enforcement reconfigure the relationships between migrant workers and employers, and produce uncertain and coercive working conditions.
Issues Paper: Temporary Migrant Workers in Australia
This Issues Paper, published by Bassina Farbenblum with the UNSW Human Rights Clinic, is an overview of temporary migrant labour in Australia for a general audience. It addresses the situation of different categories of temporary migrants, explains the factors that make them vulnerable to mistreatment, and analyses the harms they encounter at work. It sets out relevant international and domestic laws in Australia and describes key institutional frameworks.