International seafarers set to recover up to $26.7 million in lost wages in Australian waters

International seafarers set to recover up to $26.7 million in lost wages in Australian waters
Ashleigh Bagshaw 1 Sept 2023 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-01/union-recovers-record-breaking-15...

The International Transport Workers' Federation's Australian inspectorate is claiming big wins as it aims to claw back an estimated $65 million a year in wages stolen from international sailors by their employers in Australian waters.

Wage theft is an ongoing issue in the shipping industry.

Last week at Hay Point in the Mackay region, a vessel was banned from Australian waters for one year after an inspection revealed issues of wage theft and worker mistreatment.

But this year, the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF) Australian coordinator, Ian Bray, said it would record its best-ever recovery of lost wages.

"Last year, we recovered $US6.7 million ($10.3 million) of wage recovery, and that was probably the greatest result that the ITF inspectorate had achieved over a calendar year in the history of the Australian Inspectorate," he said.

"This year we're not even in September yet, and we're at $US10 million ($15.4 million) wage recovered."

Mr Bray said they were on track to recover more than double the total wages recovered last year.

"It's not unreasonable to think that we'll finish somewhere between $US14 million and $US16 million ($21.6 million to $24.7 million) for the calendar year in wage recovery."

Wage theft is an ongoing issue in the shipping industry.

Last week at Hay Point in the Mackay region, a vessel was banned from Australian waters for one year after an inspection revealed issues of wage theft and worker mistreatment.

But this year, the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF) Australian coordinator, Ian Bray, said it would record its best-ever recovery of lost wages.

"Last year, we recovered $US6.7 million ($10.3 million) of wage recovery, and that was probably the greatest result that the ITF inspectorate had achieved over a calendar year in the history of the Australian Inspectorate," he said.

"This year we're not even in September yet, and we're at $US10 million ($15.4 million) wage recovered."

Mr Bray said they were on track to recover more than double the total wages recovered last year.

"It's not unreasonable to think that we'll finish somewhere between $US14 million and $US16 million ($21.6 million to $24.7 million) for the calendar year in wage recovery."

"Considering coal is one of our main exports, [their work] is very important," Ms Harris said.

"Basically, they're the ones taking it all around the world."

Ms Harris said although she worked directly with seafarers, issues such as wage theft were often not raised out of fear of losing employment.

"A lot of them don't open up because they're afraid they won't get another contract," she said.

But Ms Harris said she was relieved to hear of the increase in the amount of wages being recovered.

"It's great to see things are happening and more and more people are caring," she said.
More resources needed to stop wage theft

Mr Bray said while the ITF was getting better at discovering wage theft, the companies and individuals that engaged in it were also becoming better at covering their tracks.

"We're either getting better and more experienced and more effective in how we go about our job, or the situation is getting worse," he said.

"I think there's a little bit of both.

"As they get smarter, we need to be more effective in uncovering it."

Dr Stanford from the Centre for Future Work said that strengthening legislation and providing more resources to enforcement agencies could help combat the problem even more.

"What we need is stronger laws closing the loopholes that shippers can currently use to exempt themselves from minimum standard, and then [to] provide our enforcement institutions with more resources and more power to inspect and enforce those laws," he said.

"And then finally, we need to impose fines and punishments on companies that violate those standards that really make them sit up and take notice."