Pacific island workers employed at a Victorian abattoir are taking home little more than $9 an hour after hundreds of dollars are deducted from their weekly pay to cover airfares, visas, phone plans, housing and furniture rentals.
Details of the Pacific islander contracts come amid an Australian government investigation into worker exploitation in the nation’s meat industry, which has for years been heavily reliant on migrant labour supplied by recruitment and labour hire agencies. This was because travel restrictions to protect against the spread of coronavirus meant meat-processing companies were unable to bring in migrant workers from Asia, he said.
He said the federal government’s announcement last month of a new agricultural visa scheme –which will be available to low-skilled workers and have a pathway to permanent residency – would probably “turbocharge” further exploitation. Professor Fels, who co-chaired the federal government’s Migrant Worker Taskforce, said more Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors were needed to help offset the risk of greater exploitation in the agricultural sector.