Help keep work fair – how to report workplace exploitation
Report employers who are not following workplace laws to the
Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). This includes:
- pay and wages
- leave and other entitlements
- discrimination.
Visit
Border Watch to report people who:
- take migrants’ passports
- use a migrant’s visa situation to threaten or force them to work
- force migrants to live in overcrowded and unsafe housing.
You do not need to give your name when you make a report.
Extra protections for temporary sponsored skilled workers
If you are sponsoring a skilled worker on a temporary visa, you must meet your
sponsorship obligations. Employers can be reported to
Border Watch if they:
- force a temporary migrant worker to work too many hours
- pay the sponsored migrant worker less than the salary agreed when their visa was granted
- take money from a sponsored migrant worker's pay for sponsorship, recruitment, or migration agent costs
- make the sponsored migrant worker do a different job from the one approved when their visa was granted.
It is unlawful in Australia to use someone’s immigration status to take advantage of them or to treat them badly at work.
If something feels wrong about the way someone you know is being treated at their work, they can get support, by contacting the organisations on the Help page.
Migrant worker exploitation is illegal
It is illegal to use someone’s immigration status to exploit them at work. Australia has strict laws specifically designed to prevent workplace exploitation, by penalising dishonest employers, protecting temporary visa holders and supporting employers who are doing the right thing. Under the
Migration Act 1958, employers and labour hire organisations (LHOs) can face criminal charges and/or civil penalties, including large fines, if they exploit temporary migrant workers.
If you are a sponsor and are penalised for exploiting migrant workers, your business name or your personal name can be made public on the
register of sanctioned sponsors.
It is illegal to exploit migrant workers, even if they:
- are doing paid or unpaid training
- have broken their visa rules, or
- do not hold a valid Australian visa.
Types of migrant worker exploitation
It is against the law in Australia for employers to:
- keep a migrant worker’s passport
- threaten to cancel a visa
- threaten to report a worker to immigration authorities
- pressure someone to work more hours than their visa allows
- threaten future visa applications
- force migrant workers to live in unsafe, dirty or crowded housing as part of their job
- sexually harass a migrant worker
- underpay a migrant worker
- ask a migrant worker to repay sponsorship, nomination, and/or recruitment costs
- ask a migrant worker for money in exchange for visa sponsorship.
Your responsibilities
Check visa conditions
It is against the law to:
- hire a non-citizen who does not hold a valid visa
- hire a non-citizen to do work that goes against their visa conditions
- pressure a non-citizen without a valid visa into working.
Make sure you check a potential employee’s visa work conditions through the free online system, VEVO. You must get the visa holder’s permission.
Know the law
As an employer of temporary visa holders, you must know the responsibilities you have towards your workers and the relevant workplace laws.
Under the
Fair Work Act 2009, all visa holders and migrant workers have the same workplace rights and protections as other employees in Australia, regardless of their migration status. The FWO can help you understand your obligations on matters like pay and wages, leave and other entitlements and discrimination.
Under the Migration Act, you cannot:
- take a migrant worker’s passport
- pressure them to break their work visa conditions
- make threats about their visa or future visa applications
- ask them for money in exchange for sponsorship
- force them to live in unsafe, dirty or crowded housing as part of their job.
Using a labour hire organisation does not free you from your obligations to migrant workers. You must still know and follow the law, and ensure workers are treated fairly and not exploited.
Consider including a clause in your contracts with LHOs that requires them to:
- use
VEVO to check the visa conditions of potential workers, and
- ensure all their migrant workers are paid correctly and treated fairly under Australian laws, including in accordance with the Fair Work Act and the Migration Act .
Penalties for breaking the law
If you break the law under the Migration Act, you could:
- be directed to take certain action or stop doing something
- be fined
- be banned from employing migrant workers for a defined time and be declared a 'prohibited employer'. If this happens your business name will be published on the Australian Border Force website.
- face other relevant consequences including criminal prosecution and/or a civil penalty.
Penalties for serious, deliberate or repeated breaches of the Migration Act include:
- up to 5 years' jail
- fines of up to $131,040 (360 penalty units)
Breaching a prohibition can lead to criminal prosecution and up to 5 years’ jail, and/or a fine of up to $131,040 (360 penalty units) or both.
Prohibited employers
The prohibited employer scheme bans employers found guilty of serious breaches of the Migration Act from hiring more temporary migrant workers. Depending on the circumstances, the Minister for Immigration may designate an individual or a corporation as a prohibited employer.
Once designated as a prohibited employer, you are no longer able to employ any new temporary visa holders.
The length of your prohibition will depend on the findings against you:
- human trafficking and modern slavery – no maximum length of prohibition
- a criminal offence (other than human trafficking or modern slavery) – up to 10 years
- all other migrant worker sanctions – up to 5 years.
Process
If a declaration to make you a prohibited employer is being considered, you will receive a letter inviting you to explain why you should not be declared a prohibited employer. Your response will be considered and a decision made. Further information, including the timeframe for response and any rights to seek review once a decision is made, will be explained to you.
Existing workers who have a temporary visa
If you are declared to be a prohibited employer, those temporary visa holders who were already working for you at the time of the declaration may continue working for you if they wish. You are only banned from hiring new temporary visa holders.
