Audits by the Fair Work Ombudsman have found up to 40 per cent of foreign workers employed under 457 visas were underpaid, not performing the jobs they were supposed to do or no longer employed by the person who sponsored their entry into Australia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Fairfax Media has obtained monthly 457 visa monitoring reports prepared by the Fair Work Ombudsman which identify hundreds of cases of reported underpayment of foreign workers and other problems with the temporary skilled migration system.
The reports appear to conflict with the clean bill of health given to the 457 program by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday as he unveiled changes that would make it easier for employers to import labour.
A government report, Robust New Foundations, proposes a "fast-track" approvals process for larger companies with good records, relaxed English-language requirements and consideration of a 10 per cent reduction in the $53,900 maximum income threshold.
The federal government's 457 visa review contained a brief summary of the Fair Work Ombudsman's work, but not the full details of the reports submitted to the Immigration Department between September last year and June 30.
More than 300 cases have been identified by Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors of 457 visa holders being underpaid, performing a job that did not match their visa application or both.
Chefs and cooks brought into Australia on promised salaries of more than $50,000 were only being paid $30,000. Several foreign-born electricians here on 457 visas were also being paid far less than the Australian average.
In another case, a 457 visa worker recruited to Australia as a customer service manager was found to be working as a cleaner and paid just $28,000.
The random audits of 457 visa holders also identified another 420 cases where people were no longer employed by their sponsor or whose sponsor could not be located, raising doubts about the bona fides of those visa applications.
Despite identifying several hundred instances of potential exploitation, the Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors found more than 1000 cases where 457 visa-holders reported no concerns.
The government's report identified just 86 "salary concerns" and 165 "position concerns" out of 1815 referrals from the Fair Work Ombudsman in a seven-month period between July 2013 and May 2014.
On Wednesday, Mr Morrison insisted that the government's four-member panel found "no evidence to back the widespread rorting claims of the program made by the previous Labor government when they referred [to] 10,000 visa rorters".
He said the current English-language requirements were "unnecessarily restrictive" and tantamount to "an industrial lockout" by unions.
"I think there are many measures in the review we can move forward with in an uncontroversial way," he said
TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon, who obtained the Fair Work Ombudsman reports under freedom-of-information laws, said the reports had identified obvious exploitation of 457 visa-holders.
"When a worker sponsored as customer service manager is working as a cleaner on $28,000, then that worker is being exploited. When a skilled professional is sponsored as a ship's engineer but being paid $5,800, then all Australians should be concerned about the integrity of the 457 system," Mr Sheldon said.
