Spotting black birds by another name

Formerly known as ‘blackbirding’, Pacific Islander labourers were tricked or coerced, even abducted, into working as poorly paid (or unpaid) labourers in Australia and New Zealand. By the late 19th century, the British government and its Antipodean colonies had mobilised to stamp out the practice.

More than a century later, blackbird hunting is popular again, in all but name.

Ombudsman for fair work Anna Booth has condemned the “appalling” behaviour of one of Australia’s largest celery producers, Lamattina, who deliberately failed to pay wages to vulnerable migrant workers in Victoria for prolonged periods.

The Federal Circuit and Family Court has fined A&G Lamattina & Sons, which supplies celery to Coles and Woolworths from its Boneo farm on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, $166,860. The company underpaid the three migrant workers by more than $91,000 in just one year.

The judge described Lamattina’s behavior as “scandalous.” Karl Blake said that despite raising concerns about their pay with the company, one of the farm workers was only paid for 10 out of 52 working weeks, another worked only six out of 36 weeks and the third worked only eight out of 41 weeks.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Migrant workers have become a common sight in rural Tasmanian towns. Supermarket workers anecdotally report that employees shop almost exclusively for the cheapest rice and ramen specials. In just one case, 40 fruit pickers were found in a single home. The home had been converted into 10 bedrooms, with 56 bunk beds. The same property had previously been under a fire emergency order when 70 workers were found in the same building.

Insiders working for other manufacturers report that it is “common knowledge” that headquarters has “a vault full of confiscated passports.”

Ms Booth criticised the company’s treatment of the workers, who were from non-English speaking backgrounds – they speak Indonesian and Malay – and who were on bridging visas when they were employed by Lamattina. They were employed on an on-call basis to plant, pick and cut celery between February 2020 and February 2021 (…)

The three employees were collectively underpaid by $91,907 over the course of a year: one of them by more than $37,000 and the other two by more than $27,000 each.

Judge Blake ruled that the company’s conduct was “clearly deliberate and intentional” and said the farmworkers had suffered significant financial losses and were “vulnerable employees who appeared to be exploited or abused by their employer”.

The judge noted that the violations had occurred over a long period of time, that significant amounts had been underpaid, that Lamattina had shown no remorse and that the employer had taken no steps to prevent future violations, and that the employer had not cooperated with the supervisor.

If only this were an isolated case.

One in six migrants is paid less than the national minimum wage, according to a new report from the Grattan Institute. The report says governments have failed to stop the exploitation of migrant workers. Sexual harassment, bullying and unsafe working conditions are also widespread.

The report found that between five and 16 per cent of recently arrived migrants in employment – ​​or between 27,000 and 82,000 workers – earn less than the national minimum wage of $21.38 (for adults over 21), compared with up to nine per cent of all Australian workers.

And between 1.5 and 8 percent of recent migrants – between 6,500 and 42,000 people – are underpaid by at least three dollars an hour (…)

The report found that recent migrants are 40 percent more likely to be underpaid than people who have been there longer but have the same skills and experience and are in the same job.

“Migrants are more vulnerable to exploitation because they are often here for shorter periods of time,” said Grattan Institute economist Brendan Coates) said.

“Many of them do not have a good command of English, but their visa requirements also limit their negotiating power with employers.”

When the Covid panic briefly cut off the flow of migrant workers, companies screamed that Australians “didn’t want to do the work”. Yet Australian job seekers reported that it was common for their applications to be rejected as soon as they revealed their nationality.

Now we know why.