UNSCRUPULOUS labour hire practices will be the target of an inquiry announced by the Victorian Government yesterday.
Minister for Industrial Relations Natalie Hutchins said the inquiry would look at and investigate recommendations for the best possible form of regulation.
“We’re just in the process of putting some terms of reference together and putting a committee together to actually do the investigation,” she told the ABC.
“We’re hoping to get some pretty quick outcomes around how we can actually regulate probably some of the worst labour hire practices that we’ve seen in a long time.”
The announcement comes as the Fair Work Ombudsman continues an investigation into claims of exploitation and release of an investigative report into exploitation of workers on the 417 visa by the ABC’s Four Corners program.
The Four Corners report found some international workers in Robinvale were being paid as little as $3.95 an hour for their work on fruit picking farms.
Australian legislation entitles casual fruit pickers to earn an hourly rate of $21.08.
In January this year, The Guardian reported the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) was investigating fresh complaints against one Sunraysia operator who allegedly charged backpackers $450 to find them jobs, and then paid them as little as 60 cents an hour to work on local farms.
Meanwhile in the same month, a Lake Boga man reported being paid just $12 an hour to oversee a group of workers after falling victim to a rogue labour hire contractor.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (May 6).
