457 visa workers at Roy Hill being exploited, whistleblower claims    

Date
    April 4, 2014 


A whistleblower at Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia's Pilbara region claims workers on 457 visas are working excessive hours and being grossly underpaid.      

The CFMEU says it has asked Employment Minister Eric Abetz to start an urgent investigation.

The whistleblower says up to 200 white-collar 457 visa workers, about half of whom are Korean nationals aged under 30, are clocking up more than 84 hours a week. Many are female.    

They are employed by the contractor Samsung C&T and being paid about $16 an hour, the union says. 

Many are not working in the occupations approved for their visas - a breach of the sponsoring employer's obligations, the CFMEU claims.      

CFMEU national secretary Michael O'Connor said the alleged exploitation was a very serious concern.

"The allegations come as Roy Hill chief executive Barry Fitzgerald revealed that 457 visa workers were no longer required on the project because plenty of Australian workers were now available due to the downturn in construction," Mr O'Connor said.

"In the Australian Mining publication last month, Mr Fitzgerald said `more than 5500 people had applied to work at Roy Hill since December, with some positions attracting more than 600 applicants'."

The company, which was the first to sign an enterprise migration agreement with the federal government in May 2012, was being sought for comment.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/457-visa-workers-at-roy-hill-being-exploited-whistleblower-claims-20140404-362wt.html#ixzz2xsLGdOqO

Someone's always whingeing, they can't even be happy with $2 an hour. Tony and Gina have got it all worked out, we will be a third world economy by the end of their term.

Soren wrote on Apr 4^th, 2014 at 9:51pm:


I believe the issue is that people are not being paid the correct wage and are being exploited, and that this exploitation and short-changing impacts on the opportunity for Australian workers to earn a living wage in this high cost of living country.

Easy to understand.

I just thought I'd share this thought with you all...

One of the reasons for our high cost of living is the very off-shoring involved - according to the Flight of the Wild Turkeys proponents - due to the 'high cost of wages' here.

So - now we import every goddamned thing, and it costs us more in reality than it would if produced in the GAIA complex, and so our cost of wages gets higher and higher just to keep up.

Add to that the incredible 'reasoning' of government in even considering that creating, as it has here over the past 30+ years, high and endemic unemployment, and the cost to the working people of doing so - and wages are again affected upwards just to keep up.

So - we are hit with the double whammy of having no serious industrial base left, (plus high unemployment), and having to operate in Andrei's 'world economy' - in which, with the upward pressures on wages in the Third World countries to which our wild Turkeys have fled - wages and thus costs of finished goods are rising as we speak - with China for example having industrial worker wages rise by 17-20% a year (not to mention the gluttony of THEIR billionaires).

So what this means is that the economy here is in freefall - we are like a skydiver who is coasting down and still has a way to go - and has yet to consider that he leapt without a parachute.  But it is a sweet ride.. all the way to the bottom...

I bring you the GAIA.... let us get cracking on it.

It will be a long, hard, road, of seat, blood and tears - but I promise you a better future for your grandchildren....

ADDS:-  Point is - the 'one world economy' will become essentially meaningless when we are all 'equal' (to satisfy both the capitalist one worlders and the socialist one worlders - no difference).  Once we are all 'equal' most of us will be peasants working for piece rates and living in poverty - while the few romp to the bank as reward for their good work in ripping us all off.

Nations and economies cannot thrive if they are 'equal' - if all are 'equal' there is no market and no transfer of goods.

Andrei - eat my shorts with your one world economy.  YOU play with it - leave us out of it and we'll make our own deals for our resources and let you one world economy lovers get on about your own affairs.