Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to raise concerns about the government's failure to respond to worker exploitation in this country. As has been clear for some time now, there have been a growing number examples of exploitation in the labour market—and not just by fly-by-night companies. There have been very significant forms of exploitation, and some very significant household company names have been associated with this conduct. We have seen very significant, large-scale underpayments by 7-Eleven franchisees, amounting to at least tens of millions of dollars, if not more than tens of millions of dollars. We have seen Pizza Hut delivery drivers being paid $6 an hour—almost one-third the minimum wage. We have seen subcontractors for Myer being determined to be contractors but who had, in fact, been subject to sham-contracting arrangements, which shifted the cost of workers compensation and other costs to very low paid workers. That matter has been resolved to a certain extent, but we have seen many, many other examples.

As a result, Labor has responded by announcing policies that will redress many of these problems: firstly, by increasing civil penalties for intentional and systematic underpayment of workers in this country. We have also looked at pursuing directors of companies where deliberate phoenixing arrangements have been in place. This is where companies have exploited workers, underpaid them—in some cases, they have also owed other creditors money—and then liquidated the company, only to set up a new company in the same sector of the labour market and start to do the same thing again. Too many people have not been liable for such intentional conduct, and we will pursue those directors when they act in such a manner. There are, indeed, other provisions, including even criminal sanctions for the most egregious conduct that is more akin to modern slavery. We have criminal coercion occurring in very limited circumstances, I am glad to say, but it does occur and we need to look at those matters and respond in kind.

I also need to respond to some of the contributions made in this adjournment debate by the member for Bowman, who called into question the comments made by a young woman today at a press conference with the Leader of the Opposition, in which she outlined her own story. Her name is Samarah Wilson and she indicated that she was working at Capalaba Sports Club in Queensland. She was working there happily until her employer told her that she and every other casual were to be outsourced to a labour hire company called Hospitality Act, which is a subsidiary of AWX. She said that, during this process: 'We were moved off the award and were having to sign a new agreement. We were effectively signing away our rights to receive penalty rates for weekends, nights and public holidays. That meant a pay cut of $5,000 to me. I am a full-time student and I work nights and weekends to put myself through university, to put fuel in my car and to buy my textbooks, so the penalty rates are really important to me. I didn't think what was happening was fair or just and I didn't even know why they were doing it or what they were doing. I refused to sign the agreement and I lost my job.'

These things are happening. This level of exploitation is happening across our labour market. The government has been deafening in its silence in response to these matters. I pay tribute to some of the media outlets, including the ABC, Fairfax and others who have brought these matters to the attention of their listeners and readers. These are serious matters. We do not want to see people exploited in their workplaces. We certainly do not want to see good employers losing their competitive advantage to rivals who are acting unlawfully, improperly and, I would argue, immorally.

Therefore, it is absolutely vital that the bill that we introduced into the Senate this week be debated and passed. Of course, the Greens and the coalition have worked together to stop that debate happening. That is a very unfortunate situation, given the importance of this matter. It really does underline both the tawdry deal between the Greens and the government, and the failure of the government to respond to this very significant matter of public interest.