Australia yesterday faced growing calls to crack down on the exploitation of migrants who work in farms and factories after a television investigation said foreigners toiled in conditions akin to “slave labor.”
Using footage from secret cameras, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) found migrants were being paid well under the legal minimum and working up to 18 hours a day in harsh conditions.
“There is slave labor in this country,” National Party Member of Parliament Keith Pitt told the Four Corners program about workers picking and packing foods for supermarket shelves. “It is something we need to get rid of.”
The program interviewed young workers who were thousands of dollars underpaid, in some cases earning less than the minimum wage on their late and early shifts.
In one instance, a group of workers from Hong Kong and Taiwan picking cucumbers in Queensland were being paid A$13 to A$14 (US$10.25 to US$11.03) an hour for backbreaking work, while Australian workers doing the same job were paid more than A$20.
“I have thought this is very unfair ever since I came here,” said one tearful worker from Hong Kong, where the minimum wage is equivalent to A$5.31 an hour.
Workers employed via unscrupulous contractors in Australia were also toiling under false names and in the case of vulnerable women, faced sexual harassment, said the report, which focused on exploitation in several states, including Victoria.
Victoria Minister for Industrial Relations Natalie Hutchins said the state government was forming a committee to conduct an inquiry aimed at cracking down on illegal operators and would push for a national response.
Pitt also called for the government to fund a task force to go undercover to investigate the exploitation of workers to “try to crack down on this.”
The government made no immediate comment.
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