"Slave labour" in West Australian revolt

Twenty-five South African tradesmen walked off jobs across 
West Australia last week after the Australian Manufacturing 
Workers' Union (AMWU) blew the whistle on a massive immigration 
rort. The boilermakers, pipe-fitters and welders — earning as 
little as $11.45 an hour at Pt Hedland, Perth and Kalgoorlie — 
rallied in the state capital Perth, demanding Australian rates 
and relief from oppressive conditions tagged to their four-year 
immigration visas.

One Pt Hedland boilermaker was earning $13.40 an hour, after 
deductions, alongside workmates on $44 an hour union agreements.

The undercutting of Australian rates and conditions reignites 
last year's furore in which Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock 
threatened a South African diplomat after she accused employers 
of using "slave labour" from her homeland.

AMWU State Secretary, Jock Ferguson, said the 25 imported workers 
who joined his union are the tip of a "bloody big iceberg".

Labour hire cum immigration agency, Freespirit, told the WA 
Trades and Labor Council that it had 1000 South Africans employed 
across Australia.

Freespirit and the powerful WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry 
have been accused by unions of ruthlessly exploiting the 
immigrants.

One worker, a boilermaker who left his wife and children in 
Johannesburg under the impression he had a family visa, went 
public about his predicament. The next day he was sacked from 
Perth engineering shop, RCR.

Members of the 25-strong group said they had answered 
advertisements in Johannesburg newspapers placed by a company 
called Australian Business Associates. They said the ads spruiked 
"hundreds" of skilled positions available in Australia.

They went to a meeting with a woman who claimed to represent both 
Freespirit and the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She told 
them four-year visas would be arranged and that they would earn 
around $25 an hour.

When they arrived in Australia they were farmed out to a range of 
sites where all-in rates were quickly eaten away by a $1 an hour 
health care levy; nine percent super deductions; and 12.5 percent 
kickbacks to the labour hire company.

On top of that, they face a $5000 slug to cover airfares and 
administration costs on visas arranged through Australia's 
Immigration Department.

The majority said they signed agreements to pay 144 percent 
interest on loans for that figure but were told that, on arrival, 
they could transfer it to more manageable rates on visa or bank 
cards. Without credit ratings, they didn't qualify for Australian 
cards and remain saddled with the initial rate.

They said they had been told, in South Africa and on arrival in 
Australia, that they must not join a trade union.

Workers said that they were simply supplied with visas and told 
to find jobs. If employment finished they had to find alternative 
work and report back to the labour hire companies so that it 
could deduct its cut from whatever rate they had negotiated.

Mr Ferguson labelled the arrangement "pyramid labour hire".

"We have nothing against these people. They are workers looking 
to better themselves and their families", he said. "But they are 
being used to undermine every agreement and every worker in 
Australia."

Union organiser Steven McCartney said the South Africans had been 
so harshly treated they had risked dismissal by contacting the 
union despite the warnings from labour hire companies.

"In South Africa, they were told all these figures in rand and 
they sounded like a million bucks", he said, "but when they got 
here and saw the price of a steak they knew they were being 
stitched-up.

"They've stood up to be counted and stuck together on this. They 
don't know anyone in this country but they do know they are being 
shafted by Freespirit, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and 
the Federal Government."