This week the Government has announced that increased protections will be introduced to target employers who attempt to exploit temporary visa holders and to ensure workers can speak up without fear of reprisal.
The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles has said, ‘“There is a crisis of exploitation, with up to one in six recent migrants paid less than the minimum wage.”
The new measures include the following and the new legislation will be introduced into Parliament in the coming weeks that will penalise unscrupulous employers:
1. Make it a criminal offence to coerce someone into breaching their visa condition;
2. Introduce prohibition notices to stop employers from further hiring people on temporary visas where they have exploited migrants;
3. Increase penalties and new compliance tools to deter exploitation; and
4. Repeal section 235 of the Migration Act which actively undermines people reporting exploitative behaviour.
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