New legislation to protect migrant workers from exploitation

Migrant workers can often become victims of exploitation due to a lack of protections, and in many cases, cultural and language barriers. New legislation has been introduced to help prevent these issues.

The Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill 2023 aims to “establish a criminal offence for employers and third party providers who misuse visa programs to exploit temporary migrant workers.”

The Law Council of Australia president, Luke Murphy believes this legislation could help these marginalised workers, so long as compliance and regulation keep up

“We generally welcome the introduction of the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill 2023,” said Mr Murphy.

“However, we must ensure the intentions of the legislation match the reality on the ground. This means that for the regulatory regime to be effective, there must be a marked increase in compliance and enforcement efforts.”

While this introduction is a great first step towards protecting migrant workers in Australia, further reforms may be necessary if this exploitation is to be stamped out altogether.

“Further, complementary reforms must proceed expeditiously to provide greater protections for a temporary visa holder to make a credible complaint about work exploitation, without jeopardising their visa status. Temporary visa holders will only feel confident in reporting exploitation if their visa status is secure,” Mr Murphy explained.

“While the Bill contains a measure which purported to protect a worker against visa cancellation in such situations, that measure is flawed, and such protections can be provided without amendments to the Migration Act.”

An area of the law that may benefit from these reforms is visa policies, says The Law Council.

Mr Murphy commented: "Other proposed measures in the Bill could be improved to achieve their objective. These include simplifying the proposed offence provisions regarding employer coercion of an employee to accept a work arrangement which is against their interests. The Act itself should set out the substantive aspects of a Ministerial power to declare a person a ‘prohibited employer’, rather than the regulations.”

“The Law Council supports the Bill’s proposed repeal of existing offences imposed on a migrant who works contrary to visa conditions, or who works despite not holding a visa at all. Repeal of these offences may help to prevent the circumstances in which exploitation can arise and could encourage migrant workers to report exploitation,” he said.

“Understandably, there is a reported reluctance by undocumented workers to report exploitative behaviour for fear of detention and removal from Australia. The Law Council considers it in the public interest for undocumented workers to have avenues through which they can secure a visa.”