It’s estimated more than 40,000 people are enslaved across the nation, subject to violence, threats, punishing hours, low pay, poor housing and restricted movements.
Workers employed through the federal government’s the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme – which employs people from nine Pacific islands and Timor-Leste – were found to be sleeping on benches and lining up at soup kitchens in Bundaberg, in Queensland’s Wide Bay-Burnett region.
One PALM worker had metal lodged in his eye while using a staple gun, leaving him with significant vision loss. His employer forced him to continue lifting heavy bags of fruit against medical advice and didn’t apply for another visa on his behalf after the injury.
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However, ministerial intervention was sought and the Samoan man was granted permanent residency in 2023.
The federal government has made several reforms to strengthen PALM, including pay parity, minimum hour rules and extra resourcing for the Fair Work Ombudsman.
There have been 228 investigations of PALM-approved employers since mid-2019, resulting in $762,625 in recovered wages for 1937 workers, according to the ombudsman.
The changes are a good start but worker mobility should be the top future priority, NSW anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne says: “We know from experiences overseas that tied visas – where workers are made entirely dependent on the discretion of their employer – are the number one correlate of vulnerability to modern slavery.”
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