OPINION
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In the wake of the alarming revelation that 7-Eleven paid foreign workers as little as $5 per hour, it’s time for Australia to take a long look at the rampant underpaying prevalent in its hospitality and service industry.
Wollongong has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in New South Wales, at 15.7%, and this is hardly surprising when you realise what dismal conditions a young person entering the workforce is facing.
First hand, I can say that there are few things so disheartening as a lengthy job search which ends in employment at an unliveable hourly rate.
In my recent search for employment, I was offered as little as $10 per hour to work in a fast food restaurant.
I’m in a position to refuse such an unfair offer, but these employers rely on the university town, and the fact that desperate university students will often accept anything.
Shocked that an employer would so brazenly offer an illegal rate of pay, I set out a call for university students to send me lists of businesses at which they had been underpaid, or offered a rate below the award.
I have the names of over 50 businesses, including some of the most popular Wollongong establishments.
Some offences include requiring up to one month ‘unpaid trial’ with no guarantee of shifts, paying as little as $8 per hour, requiring them to work over ten hours with no break and taking 50% tax from those off the books.
Employers develop high turnover rates, briefly hiring hungry university students, with landlords at their heels.
These businesses rely on the employment of foreign students, often without the knowledge of their work rights in Australia, or family to support them.
Many on this list pay between $8 and $10 per hour. Working 20 hours per week, an employee could only hope to make $160 to $200.
The same student receiving Centrelink Youth Allowance, would receive $433.20 a fortnight.
It’s much more difficult to put yourself in the shoes of a student who cannot, for whatever reason, receive Centrelink, and therefore has no choice.
There’s no paper trail for young workers to point to. It’s laughable to think an employer who is breaking the law will hand their employees payslips, bank statements or any proof.
This is not to say that underpaying cannot be proven. Visit any of the 57 businesses, find the first employee you see, and ask for their pay slips. When there are no pay slips, you’ve found a problem.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Read each of the 13 workers’ stories
DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO SHARE?: Contact us in confidence at cos@illawarramercury.com.au
THINK YOU’VE BEEN UNDERPAID?: Call the Claim Your Pay hotline on 1300 486 466 or visit claimyourpay.com.au