Breaking the silence

A national coalition of over 40 legal service providers, unions, ethnic community peak bodies, churches, and national organisations is calling on Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil to urgently bring widespread migrant worker exploitation out of the shadows.  

Co-authored by a UTS academic, and led by the Migrant Justice Institute and Human Rights Law Centre, the Breaking the Silence proposal urges the Federal government to establish whistleblower protections that would enable migrant workers to report exploitation without risking their visa.

Associate Professor Laurie Berg, UTS Faculty of Law and Co-Executive Director of the Migrant Justice Institute, says that without the proposed whistleblower protections, employers know they won’t get caught underpaying migrant workers and exploitation will remain business as usual.

“Harsh penalties for unscrupulous employers are useless if migrant workers are too fearful to report them,” she says. 

Migrant workers generally endure exploitation in silence for fear of jeopardising their visa or ability to stay in Australia.

Key reforms proposed in Breaking the Silence include:

•  A protection against visa cancellation for exploited migrant workers who take action against their employer and have breached their work conditions;
• A short-term visa to allow exploited migrant workers to remain in Australia and pursue a claim against their employers, with visa security and the ability to work. 

The Albanese Government’s wholesale review of Australia’s migration system will report in April, as the Government is devising strategies for faster and greater migrant intake. 

With hundreds of thousands of international students, skilled workers and backpackers arriving or returning to the country, the proposal proponents argue there is an urgent need to implement these reforms within the next six months.

Co-Executive Director of Migrant Justice Institute and UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum says enabling exploited migrant workers to speak up is sensible government policy.

“It is immoral for the government to draw migrants and international students back to Australia knowing full well that it hasn’t fixed the problems that will lead to many of them being exploited and unable to speak up. 

“After a decade of government inaction, these reforms will finally make a dent on migrant exploitation without creating red tape for businesses doing the right thing.”

From 1 July, the Government will reinstate limits on international student work hours, putting tens of thousands of underpaid students at risk of visa cancellation if they speak up for working extra hours in order to earn the equivalent of minimum wage.

The Migrant Justice Institute has surveyed over 15,000 migrant workers over the past 5 years. These studies consistently found that around three quarters of migrant workers earned below the casual minimum wage in Australia, and a quarter earned less than half that. Nine in ten underpaid workers suffered in silence and took no action. 

Sanmati Verma, Managing Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre says these whistleblower protections must be a cornerstone of the government’s migration reforms.

“The conditions for exploitation are built into our visa system. If migrant workers can’t speak up without fear of losing their place in Australia, most will never come forward. When they leave Australia, new migrant workers will simply replace them in those exploitative jobs.”