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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-16 Daily Xml
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MIGRANTS AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENT WORKERS

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:14): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Industrial Relations a question about migrants and international student workers being exploited in workplaces.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: The Messenger Community News conducted an investigation about the exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers in metropolitan Adelaide, especially in the western suburbs, sparking calls for tough new laws. Reported in the WeeklyTimes Messenger on 11 August the Employee Ombudsman, Stephen Brennan, stated that the typical scenario would be that they do not get correct pay, correct allowances or hours that are reasonable. These areas are unregulated because historically they were not areas of concern, and there is a lack of award and legislation protection for those people. The Messenger Community News investigations further revealed that information under the 2007 code requiring retailers and manufacturers to keep a register of all outsourced work is not even being collected by SafeWork SA because it is too under-resourced. My questions are:

1. How does the government intend to address the lack of award and legislation protection for migrants and international student workers?

2. As SafeWork SA is already under-resourced, how would the government educate and promote employment services and rights to vulnerable migrants residing in South Australia?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:16): Following the legislation that was passed by this parliament last year, the industrial relations jurisdiction for workers in the private sector has passed to the commonwealth. The jurisdiction of the state essentially now is for government workers and local government employed workers, but under arrangements with the Fair Work Ombudsman the state, through SafeWork SA as a contractor, provides services, both educative and inspectorate services, to Fair Work Ombudsman.

I imagine most of these cases that have been raised would come under the federal jurisdiction, because they would be involving private employers. So whereas the jurisdictional responsibility is with the commonwealth for regulating such matters, as I said, the state acts as a contractor in relation to both educative and policing services under those acts. Clearly, the state has to operate to the extent that SafeWork SA is involved, and it is funded accordingly by the commonwealth government to undertake such matters.

There were some cases last year with one particular employer. From memory, it related to the dismantling of parts of the former Mitsubishi plant, and some allegations were made in relation to some Chinese workers there which have been investigated, but there are clearly issues that relate to the type of visa that migrant workers might be issued for entry into the country, so it is quite a complicated issue.

In relation to resources, as I said, to the extent that SafeWork SA enforces conditions against private employers it does so as a contractor, in effect, for Fair Work Ombudsman, because it is under commonwealth acts that it is enforcing them. We work very closely with the Fair Work Ombudsman in relation to ensuring that there is effective industrial relations enforcement within the state. Of course, through SafeWork SA the state does retain occupational health and safety issues, so, if there are issues involved in migrant or any other workers that relate to occupational health and safety, that of course remains under a state jurisdiction. If they are wages and other conditions, as I said, they are Fair Work Ombudsman matters.

As I have said, if the honourable member has any specific instances, we do need to know about them. One of the problems in this area involving migrant workers is being made aware of those situations. Where we are made aware of it, I believe that SafeWork SA, either acting on its own behalf if it is an occupational health and safety issue or in relation to its responsibilities under contract with Fair Work Ombudsman, has been effective in policing these matters, but we do need to know about them.

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