Remedies for migrant worker exploitation in Australia: Lessons from the 7-eleven wage repayment program

© 2017 Melbourne University Law Review. All rights reserved. Temporary migrants comprise approximately 11% of the Australian workforce and are systemically underpaid across a range of industries. The most vulnerable of these workers (including international students and backpackers) rarely successfully recover unpaid wages and entitlements. In 2015, media revealed systematic exploitation of 7-Eleven's international student workforce, reflecting practices that have since been identified in other major Australian franchises. In an unprecedented response, 7-Eleven head office established a wage repayment program, which operated until February 2017. As of mid- 2017, the program had determined claims worth over $150 million - by far the highest rectification of unpaid wages in Australian history. Drawing on interviews with international students and a range of stakeholders across Australia, this article uses 7-Eleven as a case study to illuminate systemic barriers that prevent temporary migrants from accessing remedies for unpaid entitlements within existing legal and institutional frameworks. We identify the unique attributes of the 7-Eleven wage repayment program that have contributed to its unusual accessibility and efficacy, and which may point to conditions needed to improve temporary migrants' access to justice through state-based institutions and business-led redress processes

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

Migrant workers’ access to remedy for exploitation in Australia: the role of the national Fair Work Ombudsman

© 2017 Australian Journal of Human Rights. Exploitation of temporary migrant workers in Australia has emerged as a significant human rights concern. However, limited attention has been paid to the State’s responsibility to ensure individual workers can access remedies for rights violations. This article considers whether Australia’s government agencies and institutional frameworks are suitable to enabling remedies for temporary migrant workers, and how well they deliver remedies to individuals in practice. Drawing on new empirical data, it focuses on the role of the national labour inspectorate, th Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). FWO has undertaken various education, compliance and deterrence initiatives directed to systemically improving conditions for migrant workers. This article 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

International Students and Wage Theft in Australia

Wage theft is endemic among temporary migrants in Australia, including international students who are entitled to work up to 40 hours per fortnight on their student visa. This report responds to the need for empirical data on international students’ responses to underpayment and other problems they encounter at work and potential effective interventions. It analyses findings from a nationwide survey of over 5,000 international students undertaken in 2019, addressing students’ rates of participation in the labour market and their wages in their lowest paid job, considering how these vary among different student cohorts. It also considers the prevalence of other forms of underpayment and record-keeping failures, dismissal after complaint to their employer, accidents and injuries, sexual harassment and overwork. After examining information- and help-seeking among international students who experienced problems at work, the report identifies key reasons why most international students did not seek information or help. Finally, it evaluates international students’ knowledge of their work rights and the prevalence of common misperceptions that may contribute to their acceptance or acquiescence to underpaid work. The report lays the foundation for education providers and government to develop more targeted interventions to address exploitation, that are evidence-based and directly respond to international students’ lived experiences captured through the survey

Migrant Workers' Access to Justice for Wage Theft: A Global Study of Promising Initiatives

Systemic wage theft has long been part of the labour migration landscape in every region of the world. Though every jurisdiction has judicial and/or administrative mechanisms to address wage claims, employers in every country can be confident that very few unpaid migrant workers will ever use those mechanisms to recover their wages. This is because the system is stacked against them at every stage in the wage claim process. This situation is not inevitable. This report provides a blueprint for improving government and court wage recovery processes for migrant workers. It draws on analysis of select, promising initiatives from around the world that demonstrate how many of the barriers that impede migrant workers’ access to justice can be overcome. These innovations shift risks and burdens of wage recovery away from workers and onto government and business, and disrupt employer expectations of impunity. The report proposes specific, evidence-based reform targets that can underpin global, national and local advocacy, and support greater coordination among a community of practice working to achieve labour justice for migrant workers

Addressing Exploitation in Supply Chains: Is Technology a Game Changer for Worker Voice?

Multinational businesses are facing mounting pressure to identify and address risks of exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery in their supply chains. Digital worker reporting tools present unprecedented opportunities for lead firms to reach out directly to hard-to-reach workers for feedback on their working conditions via their mobile phone. These new technologies promise an efficient and cost-effective way to cut through the complexity of global production, gathering unmediated data on working conditions directly from workers at scale. As the market for these tools grows, this paper contextualises their emergence within the broader political economy of supply chain governance. It presents three sets of concerns about their use that must be addressed by businesses, investors, donors and governments that develop or utilise these tools. First, the quality of data gathered by these tools may be inadequate to reliably inform decision-making. Second, global brands may gather large quantities of worker data to identify legal, reputational and financial risks without addressing structural causes of exploitation or delivering outcomes for workers. Third, large scale collection of data from workers creates new risks for workers’ wellbeing and safety

Wage Theft in Silence: Why Temporary Migrant Workers Do Not Recover Their Unpaid Wages in Australia

Wage Theft in Silence presents findings from the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey -- the most comprehensive study of working conditions and access to justice among international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants in Australia. It draws on responses from 4,322 temporary migrants across 107 nationalities of every region in the world, working in a range of jobs throughout all Australian states and territories. The report reveals that although the majority of migrant workers were paid well below minimum wage in Australia, the overwhelming majority suffered in silence. Indeed, among international students and backpackers who acknowledged they had been underpaid, only 9% took any action to recover wages they were owed. The report considers the institutions from whom those 9% sought assistance, and whether they were able to recover their wages. These include the Fair Work Ombudsman, education providers and unions.The report also presents data on the attitudes and experiences of the 91% of migrant workers who suffered wage theft in silence. Though it is often assumed that most underpaid migrant workers are not interested or willing to take action to get the wages they are owed, in fact well over half of survey participants indicated that they were open to trying to recover their wages. The report presents findings on the range of psychological, practical and other barriers that deterred them from doing so. It concludes that many of these barriers can be addressed through practical measures and policy reform, and it presents a range of recommendations to government, parliament, business and the international education sector to make reporting wage theft possible and rational for migrant workers. These include recommendations for a new or improved process for wage recovery, better resourced support services, and a firewall between the labour regulator and the immigration regulator that guarantees that migrants’ visas will not be jeopardised if they report wage theft

Transformative Technology for Migrant Workers: Opportunities, Challenges and Risks

Digital technology offers the promise to transform the labour migration landscape and to empower workers in new and previously uncontemplated ways. However it also gives rise to a host of practical, ethical and legal challenges. This report takes stock of the rapidly evolving landscape of digital tools that businesses, worker advocates and governments have developed to address exploitative recruitment and labour conditions. It considers the factors that contribute to (or undermine) the effectiveness of these tools, and the risks they create for workers and host organisations. These include legal, financial and security risks. The report considers resourcing and other challenges to sustainability and scalability of digital tools, and approaches to design and implementation that ensure the tools are taken up by vulnerable workers and deliver meaningful outcomes to them. It concludes that technology’s transformative potential will only be realized through responsible and well-considered approaches to the funding, development, and implementation of platforms that respond to migrant workers’ vulnerabilities and the structural drivers of exploitation