Employers who exploit migrant workers will face prison time and be banned from being able to employ temporary new migrants, after new protections and harsher penalties for those exploiting them passed Parliament with bipartisan support.
The Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill 2023 was given the green light by both houses of Parliament after 25 amendments were agreed to.
The bill, which was introduced to Parliament midway through last year, is focused on preventing the exploitation of visa holders working in Australia, with multiple reports finding these people are commonly paid well below the minimum wage and unlikely to report this due to fears of losing their visa.
It introduces improved protections for visa workers who speak up about their exploitation, and increased criminal and civil penalties for the companies seeking to exploit them.
“The government’s legislation will benefit all workers across the economy - visa holders and Australians alike,” Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles said.
“Under our new laws, it doesn’t matter if that company is a multinational giant or a hundred years old – if exploitation is happening, they’ll get a knock at the door.
“This reform is a win for all workers – and could not have been achieved without the bravery of those who spoke up and told their story.”
The legislation acts on two of the recommendations from the 2019 report of the Migrant Workers’ Taskforce: making it a criminal offence for employers who coerce workers to breach the conditions of their visa, and new powers to exclude these companies from employing new temporary migrants.
Under the new powers, from 1 July employers found to be exploiting a worker due to their visa status will face prison time, penalties and tripled fines.
This will focus on employers who coerce or unduly influence a migrant worker to work in breach of their visa conditions, or who use their migration status to exploit them.
The Minister will also be handed the power to ban employers found to be mistreating workers from hiring new workers on temporary visas.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the new powers are focused on punishing “unscrupulous employers” who have “routinely exploited” migrant workers.
Changes welcomed
The legislation’s passage through Parliament was welcomed by Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil.
“The exploitation of migrant workers is completely unacceptable – we welcome the Albanese government taking action to protect migrant workers from exploitation and to implement key recommendations of the Migrant Worker Taskforce,” O’Neil said.
“The exploitation of workers in Australia on temporary visas hurts all workers.
“We cannot have a country where workers fear reporting workplace exploitation because they fear losing their ability to stay in the country.
“For too many employers, exploiting temporary migrant workers is a business model.
“We commend the Albanese government for taking action to protect migrant workers and increase the penalties for employers who see temporary migrant workers as an easy target for exploitation.”
Last year’s review of the migration system found that it was “dominated by a very large temporary visa program, which has evolved and grown over time to meet different objections”.
“There has been a significant growth in temporary visa programs that facilitate the entry of lower skilled workers in lower wage industries who are often more vulnerable to exploitation,” the report said.
The report found there was a need to “engineer out exploitation in the system”.
According to a Migrant Justice Institute survey of more than 15,000 migrant workers, over the last five years three-quarters of these workers on visas earned below the casual minimum wage in Australia, while a quarter earned less than half that rate.
