Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to speak on behalf of the opposition in support of these amendments. Last sitting I spoke on the substantive bill itself and said that I welcomed many aspects of this bill for finally delivering some increased protection to vulnerable workers, particularly those employed through franchise arrangements. I made the point in the last sitting that I did not think that this bill went anywhere near far enough. There's no better example of the need for this bill to be pushed further than the regulation of labour hire firms, particularly if we're talking about underpayments by those labour hire firms. I've spoken about the issue of labour hire and the problems it's causing in Queensland workplaces on a number of occasions in the chamber.

My experience with labour hire firms goes back further than the brief time that I've been a member of the Senate. As a solicitor many years ago, acting for employees in employment disputes, I well remember—this is going back 15 years or so, so this has been a problem for a long time—the problems that people who were employed through labour hire firms had in pinning down exactly who their employer was so. For instance, if they were unfairly dismissed, who was the entity that they were supposed to take legal action against? They'd try to take on the host employer, who had engaged a labour hire firm who then engaged them, and, of course, that employers would say, 'It's not us; we're not the employer. It's the labour hire firm.' You would then try to sue the labour hire firm, and they'd say, 'No, you're not an employee of ours; it's the host employer.' It was very difficult for employees of labour hire firms to determine who they should be taking legal action against, even when they had a really clear-cut case of being underpaid or sacked unfairly, or some other course of action that they needed compensation for.

Even in the fairly brief time that I've been a senator I have been struck by the widespread use of labour hire right across our economy and the incredible abuses that many people experience through labour hire. I should put on the record that I absolutely accept that there is a place for labour hire arrangements within the economy and within workplaces. In particular I can understand that for seasonal work, where there are peaks and troughs in workload, there are going to be times when employers need to turn to labour hire agencies or other short-term mechanisms to gain workers, because they're not going to have work for people there in six, nine or 12 months time. I also acknowledge that there are many labour hire firms that do follow employment laws, employ people fairly, pay the correct rates and respect the legal conditions that people are entitled to. But unfortunately—at least in Queensland, where I spend most of my time—we are seeing more and more instances of workers being absolutely screwed through labour hire arrangements which are designed explicitly to reduce people's pay and conditions, often below legal standards.

Currently, from what I can see, the area in Queensland where this is most rife is Central Queensland. We all know that the mining industry has gone through a downturn in recent years. When times were good and people were earning good money, employers had to turn to any mechanism they could to find workers to fill skills shortages. They were bringing in overseas labour and taking people through labour hire, as well as through direct employment. But, in the last few years, since the industry has been through a downturn, unfortunately a lot of employers, a lot of the big mining companies, are continuing to use those arrangements not simply to gain workers they can't gain through direct employment but to try to force down the wages and conditions of the people who work on their sites.

As I've mentioned before in the chamber, over the winter break this year I spent some time in the Bowen Basin, one of Australia's largest coalmining regions. It's really disturbing to hear the stories of people who are being grossly exploited under labour hire arrangements. That is having an effect not only on them and their own families but also on their communities as a whole. I've seen examples, which I've mentioned here previously, of large mining companies retrenching well over a hundred workers on a certain day, allegedly because they don't have enough work to maintain these people on a permanent basis, but then, the very same day, advertising in the local papers for people to come and work on their site, on labour hire, on far worse terms and conditions than those offered to their permanent workers. It's not as if there's a shortage of work that is leading to these people being made redundant. Clearly, labour hire is being used by these big mining companies to cut their wages bill, at the expense of the people who come and work on their site.

Again, I've personally come into contact with many people who have been engaged via labour hire not just for weeks or months but for years. They turn up to work as an employee of a labour hire company, not always getting the right wages and conditions, sometimes getting worse than what they're legally entitled to, but too scared to complain about it for fear of losing their job. Although they might not like working via labour hire arrangements and might not be getting the legal rates and conditions, it's better than nothing. They're forced to accept these conditions, even if they are below legal standards, simply to hang on to the job that they have.

Senator Cameron was talking about how some of the worst examples of labour hire abuses we've seen have been in the meat industry, and about one particular company, Baiada. Unfortunately the worst example there, again, happened in my home state, in Mareeba, in North Queensland. People were brought in from overseas on 457 or 417 visas to work. They were engaged by labour hire firms and were paid well below legal rates and conditions. For the privilege, they were shacked up in terrible, overcrowded accommodation and they turned up to work every day to find themselves even more exploited. Fortunately the meat industry union was able to take legal action and to get some redress for these people. But these kinds of things are going on over and over again.

There are a range of media organisations, most particularly the ABC, with its Four Corners program, and the Fairfax press, who have done a fantastic job in exposing these abuses. Again, we're seeing these abuses in many farming workplaces—in many workplaces across the board—often combined with the exploitation of overseas labour. Again, people are brought in with the promise of earning good money in Australian workplaces, only to find themselves hired by labour hire firms and underpaid. They are scared not only of losing their job if they complain but also of being deported back to their home country. And that's not an idle threat. There have been many instances in which people who did stand up against the labour hire firm that had hired them were actually deported. You only need to do that once or twice before people hear the message and everyone else in the workplace goes silent.

But it's not happening just in private sector workplaces, and it is not happening just in Queensland. This is a cancer that is eating into workplaces right across the country, and into the public sector as well. Just recently I met with members of the CPSU, who were talking about the expanding reach of labour hire within the Commonwealth public sector. Agencies like the tax office and Centrelink are increasingly turning to labour hire to put people on. Again, it comes with a reduction in terms and conditions. Most recently, at the spillover day that we had for the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee's estimates hearing, we had extraordinary evidence from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, who said that in order to meet staffing targets that had been imposed on them by the federal government they had to—rather than employing people directly, because they could only employ a certain number of people that way—meet their additional needs by putting people on via labour hire. That way, people weren't counted as being on their payroll. That was a way of making sure that they had the extra people they needed without those people actually going on the books and being counted as direct employees.

But the sting in the tail, as it always is with labour hire, was that the people who were being engaged by labour hire, working right next to direct employees of the Commonwealth DPP, were actually earning less than the direct employees. The real kicker is that it's actually costing the Commonwealth DPP more, because they've got to pay a fee to the labour hire firms to engage people. So it's no surprise that we see wages stagnating in this country. It's no surprise that people in their workplaces, no matter where they are, feel more insecure than they ever have, when the government's own employment practices are such that employers are turning more and more to labour hire in an attempt to screw down their wages bill and keep their own employees working in more insecure conditions but at greater cost to the taxpayer.

Now, in terms of these amendments themselves, Senator Cameron has already mentioned that it's not just Labor and not just trade unions who are saying that there is a real issue in the labour hire sector and that making host employers liable for underpayments should go beyond franchising arrangements. The Franchise Council itself, in its own submissions in evidence to the inquiry on this bill, made the point that exploitation of vulnerable workers is not something that's happening only in the franchising sector. Certainly some of the worst examples we've seen are in that sector, but this is a problem that is economy wide. It is particularly a problem in the labour hire sector. That's why we think these amendments should go far beyond simply applying to employment arrangements in the franchising sector and should pick up labour hire as well. Minister Cash, in her response to some comments earlier, mounted a pretty strange scare campaign—a strange one even coming from her. She had us all worried that—