Australia fines tech companies for exploiting foreign tech workers
- Reference: 1685509313
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/05/31/australia_tech_worker_exploitation/
- Source link:
That Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) scheme requires employers to sponsor visiting workers, and obliges them to ensure visa holders exercise the in-demand skills. Foreign temps must also be paid the same as their Australian peers.
Border Force (ABF) received tipoffs and a referral from Australia's Department of Home Affairs suggesting that two employers – heavy users of the TSS scheme – were not compliant with those requirements.
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Probes followed, both of which included interviews with workers on TSS visas.
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At one company ABF found eleven failures of sponsorship obligations – nine of which were instances of underpayment.
A second investigation of another employer found visa holders were not working in their nominated professions. That probe ran for 15 months and again detected 11 failures – workers were not doing the jobs they were sponsored to perform.
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The two firms were each fined AUD$90,750 ($59,000) – which would not be colossal salary for a skilled techie in Australia.
But news of the noncompliance will sting. The very reason the TSS program exists is to lure techies to Australian shores to address local skills shortages. Tales of exploitation or unexpected experiences may make recruitment harder.
Throw in rampant rent rises in Australia, an acute shortage of housing, and the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony, and techies who fancy an adventure abroad have an increasing number of reasons to consider other nations.
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[8]Australia takes its turn to kick TikTok off government kit
"Everybody working in Australia has the right to be paid properly, including workers who are holders of sponsored visas," said ABF acting superintendent Jessica Fensling. "The ABF regularly undertakes targeted sponsor compliance activities to ensure businesses sponsoring visa holders are not underpaying workers or breaching their sponsorship obligations."
Fensling added that TSS cheats are made to repay wages owed to employees on top of the fines. They can also have their sponsorship agreements cancelled and be barred from further applications. ®
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Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
Come now Simon, it's not just the deadly creatures, but the deadly fauna too (gympie gympie I'm looking at you), the deadly sky and then when you want to cool off the deadly water (rips) and its contents (sharks, jellyfish, stonefish, rays etc..).
They should advertise it to techies as "Want to level up? Come play on hard mode.."..
Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
but the deadly fauna too (gympie gympie I'm looking at you)
You have plants that are so nasty they're classed as animals?! Fuck, now I'm scared...
Feed me Seymour! Feed me!
Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
That would have been the deadly flora, but the rabbits are worse.
Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
> That would have been the deadly flora
I thought it was supposed to be healthier than butter...
Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
Did the great Terry Pratchett not make reference to certain non-dangerous creatures in the great continent of XXXX.
To quote Wikipedia
"XXXX is also called the Terror Incognita. Almost all animals and plants in XXXX are dangerous; when Death requested a book about the dangerous creatures of XXXX from his library, he was subsequently hit by a large pile of books consisting of the various volumes of "Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses and Lichens of Terror Incognita", the total books going up to Volume 29C Part 3, while a request for information about the harmless creatures merely produced a note saying "Some of the sheep". The land is inhospitable because the flora and fauna all hate you"
Even in suburban Sydney my sister finds dangerous spiders all the time.
Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
While true from a recent (English) history point of view, it’s insensitive to 60,000 years of the indigenous people’s existence.
The land is much older and more nuanced than many think.
Re: "the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
While I'll grant you the insensitivity point, the fact that Oz was a Prison Colony for a chunk of the last 200 years is a statement of fact.
""Everybody working in Australia has the right to be paid properly, including workers who are holders of sponsored visas,", or else the exploiters will get a small slap on the wrist. Beware!
They didn't even dare to name the companies.
Sport
You forgot to mention a land of inferior cricket :-)))
and rugby
don't go near Aussie rules either, that's no-rules violence.
Yeah Yeah everything here wants to kill you.... blah blah.
I haven't been hit by a drop bear or hoop snake in years.... baha.
"the plethora of deadly creatures found in the one-time prison colony"
I would have enjoyed writing that line too :-)