AAP: OVERSEAS workers employed by the Australian meat processing industry have their freedoms restricted, work long hours and do unpaid labour, a snapshot shows.
A migrant worker sees a glowing street light when he leaves home before dawn to work at an abattoir and again when he returns at night.
“It’s telling me that my working life here is basically I leave my house, it’s the morning and when I come back it’s night,” the worker told researchers investigating conditions in the meat industry.
“I feel like the day is not enough.”
Meat processing workers hired under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme have revealed exploitative working conditions including long hours, underpayment and restricted freedom.
Five workers under the scheme, which allows eligible Australian businesses to hire workers from Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste, were interviewed by RMIT University researchers.
The men, who worked in abattoirs in WA and SA, experienced punitive pay deductions, the inability to move locations and lower salaries than others doing the same work, the university’s research found.
“The participants in our study were sent to isolated rural towns, far from familiar faces, and placed in shared housing with strangers,” the Meat the Reality report said.
“Most rarely see daylight, as their physically demanding shifts are often extended with overtime.
“Stripped of the full tenancy rights enjoyed by most Australians, they endure high rents that are automatically deducted from their wages.”
Workers described having to fight for minimum wage, which was then subject to deductions for things like the use of a van to drive colleagues to and from work.
The report said that while the workers struggled to change jobs or locations under the PALM scheme, there was enormous pressure to continue.
“The knowledge that their loved ones depend on their income compels them to accept the grim reality of constrained freedom,” the researchers said.
While only five men took part in the research, the report said their stories mirrored those exposed in larger studies and parliamentary inquiries.
It was most often labour hire companies – who act as the workers’ agents – that breached workplace law, the researchers said.
There have been 228 investigations of PALM-approved employers since mid-2019, resulting in $762,625 of recovered wages for 1937 workers, according to the Fair Work Ombusdman.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt was contacted for comment.
The federal government made several reforms to PALM in the 2023-24 budget, including extra resourcing for the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Australian Border Force to maintain the scheme’s integrity.
Businesses were honouring changes that ensured minimum hours obligations for workers, Senator Watt said in a statement in November.
While the researchers said the reforms were promising they made seven recommendations for further change, including a national labour hire licensing scheme.
“Our evidence shows that much more needs to be done to ensure fair treatment and adequate protections for PALM scheme workers.”
