Image: Martin Howard [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr
Academics call for urgent reforms to Australia’s labour enforcement and student visa conditions
Wage theft, or underpayment, is “endemic” for international students with casual jobs in Australia, with a national survey revealing that 77 per cent are paid less than the minimum casual hourly rate, according to research by legal academics in Sydney.
The survey, conducted in 2019, found that underpayment was widespread and “as common among masters students as it was among English language students”.
The study was led by Bassina Farbenblum, a human rights law researcher at the University of New South Wales, and Laurie Berg, a law lecturer at University of Technology Sydney.
Farbenblum said the proportion of international students who were significantly underpaid by workers had remained unchanged since 2016. This was despite a public campaign by the national Fair Work Ombudsman to improve conditions, and the federal government’s introduction of stronger penalties for employers.
“Our findings show that tinkering around the edges of the problem is having little effect,” she said in a UNSW statement.
“Wage theft is endemic for migrant workers and indeed many Australian workers in certain industries. To seriously disrupt wage theft in Australia, we need urgent reforms to labour enforcement and student visa conditions, as well as a new wage recovery tribunal.”
The study is based on a national survey of more than 5,000 international students. It found that 32 per cent of bachelors degree students earned just $12 an hour—half the minimum casual hourly wage—or less.
Berg said that almost two-thirds of the international students who took part in the survey did not seek help for underpayment or other workplace problems such as harassment or intimidation.
“They suffered in silence, often because of visa concerns or fear of job loss,” she said.
“Our findings confirm many who complained were in fact sacked. Their visa concerns are also valid—there’s nothing to stop the labour regulator sharing information with immigration authorities if a student has worked more hours than her visa allows.”
The study recommends more effective government investigation of underpayment of international students and enforcement of penalties for employers. It has also called for removal of the 40-hour fortnightly work limitation on student visas, which makes international students more vulnerable to exploitation by employers as it is commonly breached.