Australian exploitation of backpackers and foreign workers found to be 'endemic', finds study

Up to a third of international students and backpackers paid 'well below' minimum wage

(iStock/Getty Images)

A report published in Australia by the University of New South Wales and University of Technology has discovered 'endemic' exploitation of international students and backpackers.

Published this week, the report says: "Job exploitation of international students and backpackers in Australia is endemic and severe... One in three international students and backpackers are paid about half the legal minimum wage, according to the report Wage Theft in Australia, the most comprehensive study of temporary migrants’ work and conditions in Australia. The report draws on survey responses from 4,322 temporary migrants from 107 countries in all states and territories.

As reported in the BBC, Senator and Minister for Employment, Michaelia Cash, said the government had made "several important reforms" to combat exploitation in the time since the survey began. The government urged workers with concerns to contact Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman.

"It is critical that all employers obey the law and pay the appropriate wage, regardless of the background or those employees," Ms Cash said in a statement.

Since December last year, the government had given the ombudsman greater resources and passed legislation designed to assist vulnerable workers, she added. The Fair Work Ombudsman urged temporary migrants, who make 11% of Australia's workforce, to look up their rights online.

Speaking to The Independent, Bassina Farbenblum, senior law lecturer at UNSW Sydney said, "We have a large silent underclass of migrant workers in Australia, primarily made up of international students and backpackers, who are paid well below the legal minimum wage across at least 12 industries.

Backpackers and international students are vulnerable to exploitation in Australia (iStock/Getty Images)

"Until now we haven’t known the extent of wage theft because the public rarely hears from most backpackers and international students about their experiences at work.

"Within our survey of over 4,000 people, a third of international students and backpackers were paid around half the legal minimum. Now we know that wage theft is entrenched, it’s widespread, and for many of these migrant workers, wage theft is severe. Underpayment was widespread across numerous industries but was especially common in food services, and especially severe in fruit and vegetable picking.

"Two in five participants (38 per cent) had their lowest paid job in cafes, restaurants and takeaway shops - a far greater proportion than for any other type of job. Almost a third (31% per cent) of people working in fruit and vegetable picking earned $10 per hour or less and one in seven earned $5 per hour or less. That’s less than half, or less than a quarter, of the casual minimum hourly rate of $22.13 per hour."

"Underpayment was widespread across numerous industries but was especially common in food services, and especially severe in fruit and vegetable picking. Two in five participants (38 per cent) had their lowest paid job in cafes, restaurants and takeaway shops -- a far greater proportion than for any other type of job. Almost a third (31 per cent) of people working in fruit and vegetable picking earned $10 per hour or less and one in seven earned $5 per hour or less. That’s less than half, or less than a quarter, of the casual minimum hourly rate of $22.13 per hour. 

Talking to The Independent about her own experience, Sophia Tremenheere, a backpacker from the UK said, "I found work at a potato and onion farm in South Australia through the working hostel I lived at. I spent four months hired as a casual labourer and for the majority of the time spent 12-hours painfully leaning 90 degrees over a short grading table.

"One day I hurt my wrists by Repetitive Strain Injury so badly from opening up stiff crates that I could hardly dress myself for three weeks and was too scared to tell my bosses in case they sacked me on the spot (which I had witnessed).

"As backpackers, we also received a lot of racial abuse, particularly from the bosses, and a handful of girls had even been sexually harassed by supervisors but, again, were too scared to say anything (myself included). One supervisor (who had a wife and baby) even turned up to our hostel uninvited and tried to drag a drunk young backpacker to the car. The factory was informed but did not take any further action.