Government gives assurances on measures to protect overseas workers

Monday 10 November 2008

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, today met with trade union representatives to provide assurances about steps the Rudd Government is taking to prevent the exploitation of temporary skilled overseas workers.

Senator Evans said while the vast majority of employers did the right thing, the Rudd Government shared concerns about the incidence of employer breaches in the subclass 457 visa program.

A total of 192 sponsors were formally sanctioned and a further 1353 employers were formally warned in 2007-08. This compares with 95 sanctions and 313 formal warnings issued in 2006-07.

‘The temporary working visa scheme is only sustainable if the community is confident that overseas workers are not being exploited or used to undermine local wages and conditions,’ Senator Evans said.

‘The Rudd Government has introduced a range of measures to strengthen the integrity of the temporary skilled working visa program.’

Those measures include:

Increased the minimum salary level for subclass 457 visa holders from for the first time in two years on August 1 this year and applied that increase to existing visa holders.
Appointed Barbara Deegan, an Industrial Relations Commissioner, to review the integrity of the current subclass 457 visa program and recommend measures to better protect overseas workers. The report is currently being assessed by government and will be referred to the Skilled Migration Consultative Panel which comprises industry, union and state government representatives.
Introduced the Migration Legislation Amendment (Worker Protection) Bill 2008 which has four main provisions:
expanded powers to monitor and investigate possible non-compliance by sponsors
the introduction of penalties for employers found in breach of their obligations
improved information sharing to allow immigration officials to check the tax records of employers and employees to ensure they are paying the correct wages
better defined sponsorship obligations for employers and other sponsors.

The detail of the obligations will be finalised in consultation with the consultative panel by early next year.

See:
Index of Media Releases

URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au /media/media-releases/2008/ce08106.htm
Last update: 11 November 2008 at 09:35 AEST