Migrant workers at a Victorian factory are being underpaid, exploited and are too scared to report their mistreatment lest they 'find themselves on a plane', according to a trade union.
NUW workers and Labor's Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations, Lisa Chesters at Freedom Foods' Shepparton factory.Migrant workers employed by one of Australia's major dairy producers, Freedom Foods, are performing tasks not covered under the skilled worker visa scheme, and are being severely underpaid, a union claims.
The union alleges the workers are not working as mechanical engineers, and are instead doing other jobs on the factory floor. "If these people were to be employed as technical engineers, or mechanical engineers, they would be on something in the range of $40 an hour," Mr Smith said. "If you are paying these workers 25 per cent less, as is being suggested … we need Fair Work to investigate and to expose if that's the case," she said.
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