Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the amendment, and rise to say a few words in support of the amendment before my colleague the member for Fraser makes his first speech in this place.

The member for Watson has outlined the flaws in this Fair Work Laws Amendment (Proper Use of Worker Benefits) Bill 2019 in a way that many of us on this side could probably not compete with. He has actually set out in fine detail that this bill is basically about attacking workers. It is an hypocrisy in the way in which it attacks workers who have a say over entitlements as opposed to companies which do very little or hold on to workers' entitlements. There is hypocrisy involved in that.

The people listening were probably quite concerned by what was being said. What happens is that all workers in this country have leave entitlements: long service leave, sick leave and annual leave. Employers, in the main part, are expected to put that money to one side and not spend it. They are to have it there in case a worker chooses to access an entitlement. In some industries, like the construction industry, as has been pointed out by the member for Watson, workers' money for these entitlements is actually paid into a separate fund. It is that fund that is being attacked under this bill—it is that fund, where workers actually have a say in how the earnings on these savings are spent.

Workers don't have a say when their employer makes money from their other entitlements that are put to the side. Workers don't have a say or don't even know what the employer does. The truth is that most employers don't put it aside for when the worker wants an entitlement and then complain when a worker wants their entitlement because it hits their cash flow.

The hypocrisy in this bill is large. In question time, the minister has tried to introduce this and say that because of the way in which these funds spend or how they distribute the income made from these entitlements savings that it's wage theft. Let's actually look at what wage theft in this country is. It is in an Orwellian way, and using a long bow, that the minister has tried to pull together things to say that wage theft is how these funds are actually distributing the earnings that are being made, at a time when wage theft in this country is rampant.

I'd like to remind the House of some of the examples of wage theft that are actually occurring in this country. What is real wage theft in this country? The government, by introducing this argument in question time, allows everyone on this side to remind the House what wage theft actually is. It is basically stealing. It is when employers deliberately underpay their workers. It has become part of a business model that so many employers are now using as a way to cut costs. It's become a race to the bottom in so many industries. What once was considered to be a problem in the contract cleaning industry or the security industry, or for our farm workers—people working in agriculture—is now popping up in every single industry across Australia.

Stealing is wrong, yet thousands of Australian workers every year fall victim to wage theft. This is what the government is trying to link to funds which do good for their members. They spend the earnings made from entitlements that have been saved on programs that support workers. There are some cases of wage theft that have hit the media recently. We all know about what's happening in the hospitality industry, and I do want to recognise the work of Hospo Voice. This government tried to claim that it was the work of the Fair Work Ombudsman but it was only after the complaints of Hospo Voice, United Voice and those workers standing up and saying, 'We've been underpaid by this celebrity chef.' Hospo Voice is hospitality workers getting together, standing out the front of restaurants and actually shaming them and damaging their reputations by saying, 'You haven't paid me; I deserve to be paid.'

Some of the underpayments are alarming. In my own area of Bendigo, it is rife. One of the cases that I want to highlight to the House relates to a particular restaurant that underpaid nine casuals and a part-time employee. One of the underpayments was about $11,000. The company actually refused, in the first case, to pay back pay and was then fined by the Fair Work Ombudsman. What rate were they paying these workers? A flat rate of $10.50 per hour. Some of the workers didn't complain because they were here on visas and they were threatened with deportation. Other workers who were born and bred in Bendigo did speak up, and threats of violence and threats against their life were made. It is companies like this that the government are protecting by their failure to take real action on wage theft. They talked about it before the election, but where's the legislation before this parliament? Instead, what they have focused on is anti-union, antiworker bills. Instead what they've focused on is demonising the people who expose the insidious nature of wage theft.

As I said, it doesn't just happen in the hospitality industry; it is rife in the transport and trucking industry. The way in which they are ripping off drivers—all of a sudden their penalty rates have gone. They've been told that they're on a flat rate from now on. In one particular case, again in my electorate, a worker was short-changed $16,635. And, for raising the complaint, this particular worker was sacked and then had to fight an unfair dismissal case! A lot of the workers who are victims of wage theft are also casuals and are suffering from economic insecurity. They go through the torture and trauma of, and put up with, being underpaid because they're too scared to lose their job. This is a big problem for us in this country.

Apart from the work done by the Fair Work Ombudsman—and I should highlight that the number of wage theft cases they've been able to follow up on is just the tip of the iceberg—there have been a number of surveys and research done to try and expose the insidious nature of wage theft. One was the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey. It covered a lot of temporary migrant workers, but at the heart of it was wage theft and the scope of underpayment of these workers. They found that 30 per cent of surveyed participants were paid $12 per hour less, approximately half the minimum wage. Almost half, 46 per cent of participants, earned $15 an hour or less, well below the minimum wage.

This is what is happening in our country. This is the extent of wage theft. Yet this government had the audacity to link workers having their wages stolen to what a fund is doing to support workers, thinking the Australian people would just accept it. Just because you say it's so doesn't make it so, but this government is classic at doing that.

It's not just our backpackers, international students, and people working here on a temporary work arrangement; it's people working on our farms. Again, we talk a lot in this place about the farmers, but what about the farm workers? Whether they're people who were born in Australia or who have become Australians through citizenship, or people who are here on temporary arrangements, many of them are underpaid. They're not sure what the piece rates are. They're rarely paid a proper full-time wage. These workers are not being paid well.

At the beginning of my contribution I talked about what this government says is wage theft. They say it is funds that have gone to a union where members have decided to prioritise certain programs. I'll read out some of the programs that are being funded. Rank and file members have decided—through the organisation of Protect, which is off the earnings of workers' entitlements—that they're going to offer a free counselling hotline, domestic violence awareness seminars, free gambling prevention services, free first aid for babies and children, women's self-defence courses, free legal advice, family baby packs, emergency transport cover and retirement planning. These are a lot of the things we would expect our government to do, but the construction industry has been so frugal in managing workers' entitlements. When they have put workers in charge of it, they have benefited workers, yet this government has a problem with that. They would much rather see this money in the hands of the employers. They would much rather see the government of the day pick up the pieces and pay the workers entitlements when companies go broke.

This is a bad bill. It is another example of how the Liberals want to attack unions, attack workers and tear down anything that is working and is good in our country.

Debate adjourned.

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