Worker exploitation ‘rife’ in Australia, says anti-slavery commissioner | The Business | ABC NEWS

The Trump administration recently slapped Australia with tariffs, blaming forced labour in supply chains.

While the federal government hotly contests the claim, there is evidence of exploitation of workers.

A new report titled “Off the Books” by the Migrant Justice Institute found chronic underpayment of migrant workers in Australia. The report covers the largest survey of temporary migrant workers in Australia, with almost 10,000 participants. It found two thirds of temporary migrant employees surveyed were underpaid.

In an exclusive interview with The Business, Anti-slavery commissioner Chris Evans says worker exploitation is a systemic issue.

“I think what we’ve got is rife exploitation at work and employment conditions not being observed and in its worst forms they show evidence of elements of modern slavery,” he says.

“So, if you like it’s on a continuum of exploitation from simple underpayment of wages and conditions, that runs right through to coercive control where the worker can’t leave the work situation, and that generally reflects a state of modern slavery being inflicted upon them.”

When asked about whether Donald Trump’s move is justified Mr Evans says while an important question of modern slavery and exploitation of people in business supply chains has been raised following the imposition of new US tariffs on Australia, Donald Trump’s move is about protectionism because there’s forced labour in all the supply chains in the world.

“Asia Pacific is an area where there’s a concentration of it, but the ILO (International Labour Organisation) suggests that there’s at least 25 million people in conditions of modern slavery, and many of those are in Australia’s supply chains.”

#ABCBusiness
Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE

Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.

#ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia