A MIGRANT couple paid $5 an hour to operate a Grampians motel were sacked while on holiday and returned to Australia jobless and homeless, a Melbourne justice centre says.
The couple, who came from the Philippines on 457 visas in 2013, worked between 13 and 16 hours a day, six to seven days a week at a Halls Gap motel.
Their combined annual wage was about $55,000.
Maricar Virata and her husband were too afraid to confront their employer, who had previously threatened to “remove” them from Australia if they were unhappy with the couple’s work, Ms Virata told Footscray’s WEstjustice community legal centre.
A year layer the couple were on holiday in the Philippines when they were sacked by their employer via email, alleging misconduct.
“Being migrant workers we feared to lose our jobs as employers also have earlier indicated to remove us from Australia.
“We continued to work, and worked well and hard, as if we didn't know anything about the dodgy acts of our employers, until out of the blue on July 2014 we were sacked via email.”
The couple, with help from WEstjustice, won the case against their employer for unfair dismissal. A case is before the Fairwork Ombudsman for underpaid wages.
A report released by WEstjustice on Tuesday states the exploitation of refugee and migrant workers “continues unabated” across the state.
WEstjustice’s senior solicitor Catherine Hemingway said exploitation of migrant, refugee and international workers was “rife” across the state and in numerous industries.
“In our experience exploitation is extremely common, extremely widespread and it’s not only having a terrible impact on the individual workers it’s also undermining the workplace relations framework,” Ms Hemingway said.
Workers exploited in rural and regional Victoria felt “a real sense of fear” because of their isolation and dependence on the middlemen who shopped them between employers, she said.
Several exploited workers who approached the service were from outside Melbourne, including a tomato picker paid less than $10 an hour at a site without toilets, forcing the workers to “pee wherever they were”.
The worker, referred to as Joyce, told the service “we were anywhere and they could do anything to us.”
The report calls for accessible services and targeted, face-to-face information sessions and legal advice for migrant, refugee and international workers as well as legal and procedural reform.
“It’s clear that the current system is failing to stop the abuse,” Ms Hemingway said.
“We also really need to ... increase accountability for people in labour hire and franchises, with current laws and processes we’re not able to take action against those who are reaping the benefits.”
Industrial Relations Minister Natalie Hutchins spokes in Ballarat on Tuesday about the state government’s labour hire licensing scheme which aims to crackdown on dodgy labour hire companies.