Page 16 - Islands Business March 2022

Labour Migration Labour Migration

More than 60 Fijian workers were farewelled by Fiji’s Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations, Youth and Sports Parveen Kumar
Bala this month. Ten of the workers will be engaged with a new employer, Pickers and Pruners under the Australia Seasonal Worker Program while 53
will work in the tourism industry in the Northern Territory under the Australia Pacific Labour Scheme. Photo: Fiji Government

WORK SCHEME TO DEAL WITH

‘SLAVE LABOUR' CONDITIONS

By Kevin McQuillan Australia’s horticultural industry as ‘ground zero’ for migrant
wage theft, exploitation and modern slavery.
Next month (April), a new scheme for Pacific Islanders to
work in Australia’s agricultural industry comes into force, Testimony
after parliamentary inquiries heard evidence that Pacific Twenty-nine-year-old Samoan, Talipope Kalolo, told a Sen-
Islanders have been exploited and treated as slave labour. But ate Committee in February 2022, when their group tested
comments by a Samoan official cast doubt on how much sup- positive for COVID-19, the four of them were quarantined in
port the workers receive from their own governments. their one-room living quarters with weekly shopping that was
Each year, some 20,000 workers from Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, not nearly enough to feed the four of them.
Tonga and East Timor come to Australia to work, mostly on “For the whole week we were given two toilet paper rolls,
farms, picking fruit and vegetables. two soaps, one bottle of juice, one loaf of bread, two or-
But testimony to numerous parliamentary inquiries going anges, and four packets of saimin noodles.. for the four of us
back 10 or more years has shown that the promises of basic in this one small room.”
wages and conditions have been rarely met. On their first week back after 10 days of quarantine, their
Numerous witnesses explained that it was common prac- deductions had included the two weeks they were in isolation.
tice for up to two-thirds of workers’ pay to be deducted each He said $150 had been deducted for transport – a cost that
week for expenses, including water, the cost of flights, visas, was normally $50 per person per week.
clothing, health insurance, accommodation and transport to The business at the centre of Kalolo’s claim, Melbourne
work on farms. agri-tourism business Sunny Ridge, has denied the allegations.
According to Stewart Levitt of law firm Levitt Robinson, who And one of Australia’s largest labour hire companies, MADEC
is preparing a class action on behalf of Pacific workers, there Australia, has denied allegations it paid a worker just A$70
has been ‘a pandemic of worker abuse’. (US$51) for a week’s work. The firm was named by Vanuatu
“There are some exceptions to the rule. Perhaps 10 or 20% workers in their testimonies.
of labour hire firms or employers are doing the right thing,”
he told the ABC. Absconding
“But overwhelmingly, they’re being exploited, and they’re More than 50 Pacific workers ‘absconded’ from the SWP last
being exploited right across Australia.” year, in search for better pay and work conditions. Many were
Former Treasury official, Leith van Onselen, described poached by dodgy labour hire companies luring workers away

16 Islands Business, March 2022