CANBERRA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government on Thursday announced its support for criminal charges for employers who engage in "egregious exploitation" of their workers.
Kelly O'Dwyer, Australia's Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, on Thursday said that the government had offered "in principle" support for recommendations in a report released by the Migrant Workers' Taskforce on Thursday.
The taskforce called for criminal sanctions to be imposed on employers engaging in "systematic" wage theft in what would be a first for Australia.
"The introduction of criminal sanctions would provide a clear signal to unscrupulous employers that exploitation of migrant workers is unacceptable, and the consequences of doing so can be severe," the report said.
The taskforce was established in 2016 to investigate widespread reports of the mistreatment of migrant workers, particularly those working in horticulture, cleaning, security and meat processing industries.
O'Dwyer told News Corp Australia that the government has no tolerance for those who repeatedly and deliberately underpay workers, whether they are an Australian or worker on a visa.
"For the very first time, we will introduce criminal sanctions for the most serious and egregious forms of deliberate exploitation of workers," O'Dwyer said.
However, she added that the penalties would not apply to employers who accidentally or inadvertently do the wrong thing.
A separate report from researchers at the University of New South Wales and University of Technology Sydney released in October 2018 found that one third of migrant workers in Australia were earning less than half the minimum wage.
It revealed that wage theft was most common in fruit and vegetable picking where 31 percent of respondents were paid 10 Australian dollars (7.03 U.S. dollars) per hour or less and 15 percent earned five Australian dollars (3.5 U.S. dollars) an hour or less. The minimum casual wage for horticultural work is 27.55 Australian dollars (19.37 U.S. dollars) per hour.
