Whilst having our usual
tea and toast in the morning, the Sydney Morning Herald, the local newspaper,
met us with quite an interesting article, which we think is a worldwide
problem - even in Norway.
It said that construction was the second highest employer of illegal workers, and that the Department of Immigration said in 2009-2010 it conducted 3752 compliance field activities relating to illegal workers. The executive director of Independent Contractors Australia, Ken Phillips, said he talked to officers, but they are never able to catch them. It must be like squeezing a balloon. One catches a person and still one knows there are 100 out there one hasn’t caught!
I immediately thought of O'Sean and his family, Brian, who is in this business. We phoned him, and he told us it was completely normal, and that he had worked with illegal builders in the last company he had worked for. Brian told us he had left the company and found a new because of this, because he didn’t want to be a part of something that utilizes human beings. And continued by saying he used to be afraid to speak up, in case the employer fired him and devastated his reputation as the good builder he were.
The article followed with a report that was commissioned by the government which said it was about 100,000 illegal workers in Australia.
Some were temporary foreign workers, mostly from China and Korea, as well as British backpackers. All of them got away with using each other’s safety induction cards. This, we thought, was definitely because either subcontractor fails to check their credentials or they choose turn a blind eye to keep costs down. Though the worst thing, some of the workers was paid as little as $3 an hour!
It said that construction was the second highest employer of illegal workers, and that the Department of Immigration said in 2009-2010 it conducted 3752 compliance field activities relating to illegal workers. The executive director of Independent Contractors Australia, Ken Phillips, said he talked to officers, but they are never able to catch them. It must be like squeezing a balloon. One catches a person and still one knows there are 100 out there one hasn’t caught!
I immediately thought of O'Sean and his family, Brian, who is in this business. We phoned him, and he told us it was completely normal, and that he had worked with illegal builders in the last company he had worked for. Brian told us he had left the company and found a new because of this, because he didn’t want to be a part of something that utilizes human beings. And continued by saying he used to be afraid to speak up, in case the employer fired him and devastated his reputation as the good builder he were.
The article followed with a report that was commissioned by the government which said it was about 100,000 illegal workers in Australia.
Some were temporary foreign workers, mostly from China and Korea, as well as British backpackers. All of them got away with using each other’s safety induction cards. This, we thought, was definitely because either subcontractor fails to check their credentials or they choose turn a blind eye to keep costs down. Though the worst thing, some of the workers was paid as little as $3 an hour!
Isn't this to break the human rights, we asked
ourselves. Everyone has the right to a proper job of equal
and fair wage for equal work. Too many times we
see this. Those who already have only get more and more,
and those who need it are left with nothing. A good example to this is Norway,
who sells their old tools for agriculture, for
instance tractors, to African countries. The African countries buy
the tractor so they can produce and harvest their vegetables. The problem is,
though, Norway doesn't want to import it, and then again we
are left with the big, fat wallet.
It looks like the people of Australia don’t quite know how to deal with this problem, at least according to the police. But then again, who does?
It's not a secret it's a problem in Norway too. Just think about the polish carpenters who are exploited for cheap labor. So in fact, we are no better than them! The government of both countries should take more responsibility, well, they should have a long time ago, when it comes to cases like this. We believe that employers in companies like this should be penalized if they commit a crime like this and have the opportunity to thoroughly monitoring.
It looks like the people of Australia don’t quite know how to deal with this problem, at least according to the police. But then again, who does?
It's not a secret it's a problem in Norway too. Just think about the polish carpenters who are exploited for cheap labor. So in fact, we are no better than them! The government of both countries should take more responsibility, well, they should have a long time ago, when it comes to cases like this. We believe that employers in companies like this should be penalized if they commit a crime like this and have the opportunity to thoroughly monitoring.
- Gina & Ane
Sources:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/illegal-workers-rife-in-construction-industry-union-claims-20110724-1hvgo.html, http://weheartit.com/entry/38987100/via/laurenangelofficial
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