One in four international students earn less than half the minimum wage
More than three-quarters of international students earn below the minimum casual wage and one in four earns less than $12 an hour – less than half the minimum casual hourly rate.
A study of 5000 international students in 2019 by the University of NSW and the University of Technology Sydney has found almost two thirds (62 per cent) suffered in silence and did not try to access help or even seek information about their problems.
UTS Law Associate Professor Laurie Berg and UNSW Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum said despite the Fair Work Ombudsman’s efforts and stronger penalties for wage theft in recent years it was “still business as usual in terms of the exploitation of international students”.
International student Robinson Adhikari, 25, has worked in three jobs that paid him as little as $17 an hour since his arrival in Australia from Nepal more than two years ago. He was paid $17 cash in hand while working on weekends at a chicken factory where he cleaned the cool room. He later worked as a kitchen hand for $18 an hour on weekends. He was then paid $18 an hour as a traffic controller working at night, on weekends and in bad weather.
“It was really hard for me,” he said. “At the beginning when I worked as a kitchen hand and as a cleaner I even cried sometimes.”
Mr Adhikari, who is studying for an IT and business at a private college in Sydney, is now being paid $27 per hour as an office cleaner. “Now it’s OK,” he said.
Associate Professor Farbenblum said reforms to labour enforcement and student visa conditions, as well as a new wage recovery tribunal, were urgently needed to disrupt wage theft in Australia.
“Tinkering around the edges of the problem isn’t working,” she said.
Associate Professor Berg said almost two-thirds of international students didn’t seek information or help for problems at work and “suffered in silence, often because of visa concerns or fear of job loss”.
She said many who complained were sacked and there was nothing to stop the labour regulator sharing information with immigration authorities if a student has worked more hours than their visa allowed.
Associate Professor Farbenblum said the COVID-19 shutdown had created a humanitarian crisis among international students and other migrant workers in Australia.
“Many have been unable to pay their rent and joined food bank queues,” she said.
Maurice Blackburn Employment Law Senior Associate Patrick Turner welcomed the report and said international students needed to be reassured they would not face adverse consequences if they spoke up about workplace exploitation.
“The vulnerability of these exploited workers has only worsened under COVID-19,” he said.
Sharmilla Bargon, employment solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre said the most common employment problem for clients was underpaid wages and this had worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is not a week that goes by that we don’t see international students that have been exploited at work,” she said.
Ms Bargon said one of her clients, Rohit Patel, was promised payment of $20 per hour as a casual, less than the minimum wage, but was not paid at all after two weeks of work.
When he kept asking for his pay, his boss yelled at him and told him “you will never see the money, f—- off”.
Ms Bargon said many international students and migrant workers not only lost income but were unable to access the Fair Entitlements Guarantee to recover unpaid entitlements after a business failed.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said the government was making progress towards introducing new penalties for serious underpayments and a more efficient process to recover them as part of its “zero tolerance approach” to worker exploitation.
A spokesman for the Fair Work Ombudsman said it was considering the report’s findings and did not tolerate the exploitation of international students. It said it prioritises enforcement action for matters involving migrant workers and visa holders, including international students, who have the same workplace rights as Australians.
Anna Patty is a Senior Writer for The Sydney Morning Herald with a focus on higher education. She is a former Workplace Editor, Education Editor, State Political Reporter and Health Reporter.
Most Viewed in Business
Source: Thanks smh.com