Wage e or Modern Slavery

Words by Marinella Marmo

Wage theft is the unfortunate reality for many living in Adelaide. A key aspect of wage theft that is not wellknown, however, is the link between underpayment and vulnerability.

In collaboration with the Australian Catholic Religious Against Tra cking in Humans group, the Young Christian Workers group, and the South Australian Labour Hub, our team here at Flinders University conducted a study on the ‘cycle of vulnerability’. The cycle of vulnerability suggests that the more precarious one’s situation is, the less one is able to walk away from it. Our study also suggests that those on temporary visas, such as international students, are more vulnerable to labour exploitation.

Workers between the ages of 24 and 35 are the most likely to experience labour exploitation here in Adelaide, with an almost even split between gender. Workers from China and Nepal were also at a disproportionately high risk of exploitation.

Our study also found that exploitation is present within a wide range of industries – from hospitality and administration to security and cleaning; to retail and healthcare. Common to all of these industries is the stories of underpayment, long hours, and little to no access to bene ts. ‘Cash in hand’ payments, informal contracts, and forged payslips were all common techniques to evade inspections by FairWork.

These conditions contribute to a worker’s precarity, especially in regards to international students who rely on said incomes for university fees and accommodation. International Students often lack an informal support system to assist in these needs, and face other issues such as an inadequate understanding of the socio-cultural, economic, and legal system and insu cient skills in technical-legal English, which is needed to keep oneself informed of one’s rights or of agencies that can o er pro-bono help. In this regard, we found evidence that in some cases workers were told they ‘weren’t allowed to join a union’, limiting their ability to access the information and support they need.

The precariousness of temporary migrants is also linked to their (sometimes self-imposed) silencing, due to a fear of losing their job. ‘Losing the job’, ‘losing ability to pay for rent/ bills’ and ‘di culty to nd a new job due to small community’ were the most frequently chosen replies in our survey. We also collected evidence of international students being threatened, blackmailed, and verbally, physically and/or sexually harassed. Verbal abuse was very common and ranged from belittling and passiveaggressive remarks to open abuse.

Wage theft is part of a continuum that exacerbates the worker’s vulnerabilities and may lead to forms of modern slavery. Often, we don’t appreciate what modern slavery is until we re ect on the indicators of forced labour provided by the International Labour Organisation, as follows:

• Abuse of vulnerability • Deception • Restriction of movement • Isolation • Physical and sexual violence • Intimidation and threats • Retention of identity documents • Withholding of wages • Debt bondage • Abusive working and living conditions

Within our study we found cases where, alongside underpayment and abuse, a worker’s documents, laptops or personal devices were kept by the manager against the worker’s will, representing a form of debt bondage. In the most extreme cases, when threats, deception and/or coercion are present, such extreme exploitation is more akin to conditions of slavery or slavery-like practices (such as forced labour, debt bondage or domestic servitude) than wage theft. The more the above indicators are present the more the situation resembles extreme exploitation akin to slavery-like practices, rather than just wage theft alone. In such cases, the worker lacks the ability to o er free and informed consent. We need to walk in the shoes of these temporary visa holders before claiming that they ‘could’ or ‘should’ walk away. Fair Work Commission

Working Women’s Centre

Worker’s legal Commission of Australia: Worker’s Rights Guide