UPDATE OCTOBER PART TWO 2006

FOREIGN WORKERS FALL FOUL OF SAFETY LAWS

A $60 million building project supported by the NSW Labor Government and the Howard – Vaile Liberal-National Coalition and employing overseas workers on questionable temporary work visas has been halted after receiving 39 infringement notices.

The workers are some of the 40,000 expected to arrive in Australia this year on the so called business visas designed for employers who cannot procure local workers with special skills.  It has been reported that those at the Wetherill Park Building Site, where ABC Tissues in constructing a tissue paper mill and plant, failed to meet the most basic criteria for eligibility for the so called 457 visas.  It is believed up to at least August 4, 2006 these workers were being paid in China which is in breach of their visa conditions, by a Chinese Government owned company acting as a labour hire firm.

ABC Tissues is owned by Henry Ngai, who had a magnetic high level show of support when construction commenced last year, with the Federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock, participating in the sod-turning ceremony.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says that between the foreign workers arrival in February and May 2006, they were not covered by worker’s compensation which is a further breach of regulations.  Workers on 457 visas should be skilled and duly fully qualified for the work they have agreed to undertake, and be prepared to fulfil our country’s safety laws.  But at the ABC Tissues site there were forklift drivers and electricians without appropriate licences.

The site was closed by ABC Tissues in the third week of August 2006 after a major clash with the worker’s Union and an investigation by Work Cover.  It was reported not one of the Chinese workers could speak English, follow emergency procedures or read safety signs.

The majority had to be trained to operate the most menial tasks.  An Australian tradesman on site said he was flabbergasted to witness one of the guest workers make a non – compliant Chinese power tool fit a socket by stripping the cord and inserting naked wires directly into the plug.

At a meeting on August 4, ABC Tissues general manager, Ming Ly, explained to a group of union officials and senior ABC managers  that the workers were being paid in China rather than in Australia .  Mr. Ly was unable to nominate a bank account or how much his foreign workers were being paid or confirm that superannuation was being paid.

ABC Tissues is one of the leading suppliers of tissues and toilet paper in Australia , with factories in Sydney , Brisbane and New Zealand with total revenues of more than $19 million last year.  Approximately 50 Chinese workers were hired by a Chinese Government owned business, the Hunan Industrial Equipment Installation Company, which is supplying labour to an Italian company, A. Celli, who has the contract to build and install the mill for ABC tissues.

The Project has been at the centre of tensions since May between ABC Tissues, the two overseas contractors, and the worker’s union regarding the Chinese workers.

Prime Minister John Howard in June told Federal Parliament that Mr. Ruddock had played no part in the Department of Immigration’s decision not to act on claims that immigration rules had been breached at the site.  It is unclear, if anyone had made such an allegation.

The Prime Minister said the Department of Immigration was investigating the site, but workers and union officials said they have seen no evidence of any investigation.

Mr. Ruddock and the State Manager of the Department of Immigration’s Migration Assistance Scheme, David MacLeod, was present at the sod turning ceremony in September 2005.  A spokesman for Mr. Ruddock said he had attended due to his close relations with the Chinese community.  Mr. Ngai is noted for his generous charity donations and “good relations with all tiers of Government.”

In the past year, Mr. Ngai has been thanked for many donations to various causes by the NSW Unity MP, Peter Wong and the Queensland Labor (ALP) Premier, Peter Beattie.  In 2005, Mr. Ngai also accompanied the Mayor of Fairfield, Nick Lalich, and other Councillors and staff to Shantou in China ’s south to help forge a sister-City relationship, contributing $10,000 to their costs. 

This mill project has been backed by the NSW Government’s major projects unit, which assists business development that benefit the state by providing employment that appears to point to foreign workers being paid slave wages.  Is it possible that the Howard Government’s changes to the Industrial Relations Laws such as Work Choices is to accommodate Foreign Slave Labour.

Australian workers at the site were dumbfounded when the Chinese workers arrived unannounced in February.  They were housed nearby and driven to work each morning by bus, each wearing matching overalls and shiny new red helmets. 

One local worker reported that shortly after they arrived the new workers opened shipping containers stored on-site and unloaded masses of equipment shipped from China , including thousands of boxes of new tools, scaffolding, ladders and safety equipment that did not meet Australian safety specifications.  Another told how he saw a Chinese worker swaying high in the air as he welded a pipe he was tied to, as it dangled from a crane.

“We’d see people on the roof, 20 metres in the air and you couldn’t even yell at them to get friggin down,” he said.  One local worker said he feared someone had died when he came across a group standing around a man prostrate on the ground.  In fact the man was using a pipe to blow dust form a newly frilled hole.  “It was straight out of the 1930’s.”  Despite the evidence of breaches of workplace and immigration regulations, workers on site said they had been told by management that a further 21 visas for overseas workers had been approved.

The Australian workers said it was impossible to maintain a safe site with 2 workforces labouring side-by-side being unable to communicate.  They were also angered that the day the Chinese workers arrived, negotiations with local subcontractors to work on the mill’s installation ended.

The State Secretary of the union, Paul Bastian, said it was absurd that in the eyes of the Department of Immigration the Chinese workers were in Australia plugging a skills gap, while Work Cover was not satisfied they were safe to work unsupervised.  He said the site revealed how poorly policed the 457 program is.

A spokesman for Work Cover said the agency was investigating the insurance and the worker’s compensation situation on the site, but was unable to say how they could prosecute a foreign company in the event it broke the law.

The Department of Immigration refuses to discuss specific cases.  Why?

IS THE FOREIGN WORKER VISA SYSTEM A FORM OF INDENTURED LABOUR

Is there a hidden agenda when the Howard-Vaile Coalition Government says skilled foreign worker visas fill gaps in the Australian workforce.  On Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 77 people working in the rear office of the funds manager BT on the outskirts of Adelaide were informed they would all join the unemployment line by the end of January.  Their jobs were being moved off-shore to India .

The staff, who do everyday banking tasks such as transferring funds and opening accounts, were offered a bonus if they remained to train their replacements.  “Your commitment and efforts are essential to us while we are training our new partner and transferring the work,” a BT memo said.

The audacious part is, these Australian workers are not only losing their jobs, they are being asked to train their replacements, who will enter Australia on a short term business migration scheme planned to support Australian business and thus increase employment.  The increase in skilled-worker visas has been so enormous over the past two years that some observers believe the Government has moved immigration and employment policy by stealth.

There is escalating controversy regarding two visas, the 456, which allows workers into Australia for up to 6 months, and the 457, under which foreigners may work up to four years.

Close to 40,000 foreign workers are expected to be granted 457 visas this year, (2006) up 43 per cent on 28,000 visas last year and a 66 per cent increase on 2003-04.  Because each visa lasts up to four years the “range” of 457 visa workers in Australia is higher still, approximately 48,000.  Including dependents, many of whom may also work it is estimated there are as many as 75,000 people in Australia on the scheme, which shows no sign of easing in growth.

A planned program to help businesses bring executives into Australia is now being utilised to feed the labour demands of companies expanding in the mining boom.  The Howard Government has relaxed the regulations so much that truck drivers, factory workers and kitchen hands are now using the visas.

Employers no longer have to advertise locally before they diversify to overseas labour.  And although they must pay award rates or set minimum wages of between $41,000 and $51,000 per year depending on location and skill level, employers are not required to pay Australian market rates.

Dr. Phil Toner, senior research fellow with the University of Western Sydney ’s Centre for Innovation and Industry Studies, sees this as evidence the Government is using the migration scheme to push down Australian wages.  “Clearly the implication is that though the minimum may be $41,000, any jobs that might have a market rate over that are going to see a downward pressure,” said Toner, the author of a research paper highly critical of the 457 program to be released  on Monday, September 4, 2006.

The program is also a disincentive for employers to spend money, on training exacerbating the existing skills shortage, he said.  Research by the consultant Dr. Bob Kinnaird, published by Monash University ’s Centre for population and Urban Research, shows that about 30% of the visas listed pay rates at the minimum suggesting Australian wages were being undercut. 

The Centre’s director, Dr Bob Birrell, has no doubt this is the Government’s intention.  “There is no question that the goal is to restrain wages, “Birrell Said.  “The Government understands the cost of new mines, conveyer belts, railway lines and ports.”  Dr. Birrell said the Government had piggybacked a new migration policy onto an old visa category to sidestep public debates.

As a result, he said, proper data was not collated and the system was open to abuse.  For example, it is known that about 8,000 employers have been approved to sponsor workers on 457 visas, but not who those employers are.  And the number of foreign workers is known but not who or where they are.  We don’t know because the Government won’t tell us; they say it is a privacy issue Birrell said.  Foreign labour hire-firms have responded to the call as well as Australian companies. 

One a South Korean Government enterprise known as NIAA Korea, recently sent a pamphlet to one of Australia’s largest manufacturers, promising it could provide Australian employers with “candidates (who possess) unique and extremely adaptable work ethics and ideas which may drive your company to new and exciting heights."

Quite, but what occurs if a foreign employer breaks Australian workplace law?  The State Industrial body, Work cover, is investigating claims that Chinese workers on a construction site owned by ABC Tissues worked for 5 months without workplace insurance, a huge infraction by Australian standards.  But a Work Cover spokesman could not say whom it would prosecute even if it proved the claims.

Worse, the visa system provides for a form of indentured labour, its most trenchant critics say.  Because workers rely on their employer not only for their income but also for their visa, some more so those who don’t speak English are vulnerable to exploitation.

Jung Sub Seo entered Australia on a 457 visa to work as a tiler.  He was a passenger driving with a work supervisor from Perth to Sydney when the car crashed and rolled.  Seo suffered a back injury and was unable to work.  His employer refused to pay him or co-operate with insurance processes, and told Seo he would be deported if he complained.  Without a wage or access to social services, Seo had to rely on support from family in South Korea .  Prior to the accident, Seo claimed he was not paid overtime, sick pay or holiday pay for a year.  The CFMEU is now acting on his behalf.

Such exploitation is nothing new, Seo said through an interpreter.  Since many workers eyed the 457 as a prelude to permanent residency, they were willing to put up with shocking abuse rather than leave their employer, he said.

There has been increased attacks on the 457 program in recent months by the Labor Party and the Union against the Howard Government.  The Government, the architect of a controversially tough immigration policy, has intimated the Labor Opposition is pandering to racism.

“We have now got a Leader of the Opposition who tells Australian parents, ‘watch out, the foreigners are coming to take your children’s jobs.’  If you are not ashamed of it, "I am,“ the Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone, told Parliament last month.  We have shifted from a dog whistle to a foghorn.

Labor’s Immigration spokesman, Tony Burke said Labor’s concern was as much for foreign workers as it was for local unions.  The program should be overhauled to compel employers to seek Australian labour before looking offshore, and to pay market rates, he said.

Vanstone has acknowledged that 457 program has “problems around the edges” but points to research by leading academics released last month which found 93% of those surveyed were professional or skilled workers, with an average salary of $65,000 per year.

Bob Kinnaird questions the research and says it was based on an unrepresentative sample.  “It does not ask the key questions: What were the respondents paid and what were the market rates?  It does not answer the question: Are these people being used as cheap labour?”

Either way, an insight into the thinking of at least one employer was provided by Dick Smith, an executive at the Perth construction company, Hanssen.

“We found that by using this migrant labour they’d just do it the way we wanted,” he told ABC radio in May (2006).  “I’m not saying that they are at a lower level of intelligence:  It just seems that Filipinos can do one task and not do anything different until they’re told to do something different.”

 WORKERS FORCED TO PAY BOSS $10,000

 The following report by Michael Bachelard with Nick O’Malley appeared in the Wednesday, September 6 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.

A printing company has used the Government’s temporary migration scheme to use four Chinese men like indentured labourers, working them up to 60 hours a week and deducting $10,000 each from their pay.  One of the men Jack Zhang, has told the Herald he was summarily sacked two weeks ago as soon as his $10,000 was paid off, in what one senior union official has described as the worst abuse of the temporary skilled visa system that he has seen.

The money was removed from Mr. Zhang’s pay at the rate of $200 a week over 50 weeks.  His contract was for four years.  The money was paid to the men’s employer, Dor Tu, the owner of the Melbourne printing company Aprint.  After Mr. Zhang was sacked he was immediately replaced by another worker from China , who Mr, Zhang says is also paying Mr. Tu.  Mr. Tu confirmed he had taken money from the workers’ pay, and said it was to pay “lawyer fees” and travel.  He also confirmed another worker was on his way from China to start work next week.

Under the rules of the 457 temporary migration visa, Mr. Zhang must find another job with a registered sponsor or leave the country in 28 days.  His time expires at the end of this month.  Mr. Zhang said that before he came to Australia he was charged another 60,000 Yuan ($9,800) by an agent in China , which included his airfare.  Mr. Zhang said the agent was a friend of Mr. Tu.  He showed the Herald evidence that another $120 a week was deducted from his pay to rent a house owned by Mr. Tu.

Mr. Zhang’s payslips show he was earning $751.92 a week in ordinary time earnings.  However, he said and Mr. Tu confirmed that his standard working week was 60 hours.  That puts his hourly earnings at below the federal minimum rate of $12.75 an hour.  When he worked overtime he was paid a flat rate of $12 an hour.  The award demands double time for weekend work.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s printing division secretary, Jim Reid, said Mr. Zhang was underpaid at least $388 a week compared with the award rate.  The union will put in a claim for the short-fall.

Mr. Zhang’s story appears to reveal numerous gross breaches of the temporary visa system.  Mr. Zhang’s visa requires his employer to pay him $42, 000 a year of the award rate, whichever is higher and the payment of fees in China and to Mr. Tu is illegal.  Mr. Zhang could not afford a lawyer to fight the case, but the AMWU is trying to find him a job.

In a separate case, the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, told Parliament, Chinese workers continued working on the ABC Tissues site at Wetherill Park after it closed, while local subcontractors were stood down without pay.

 The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, who attended a ceremony at the start of building on the site, said the company who had hired the workers, Hunan Industrial Equipment Installation, could be banned from sponsoring workers into Australia if it had been found to have broken the law.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, defended the importing of labour and said Federal Labor was out of step with State Governments (Labor) that imported skilled workers under the program, especially in the health field.

 LEVY ON TOP OF LEY = DOUBLE- TAXING

RATEPAYERS, have become milking cows of Local Councils.  We explained in an earlier article that a “levy and excise” means a collection of tax.

One good example is the unconstitutional collection of bi-annual excises on fuel, Alcohol and tobacco which was introduced by Labor treasurer Paul Keating and embraced by John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello.

This means of collecting taxes becomes unconstitutional, when the Government collects GST on top of the excise which is double-taxing.  An added example involves the family of one of our members who has become one of the victims of the Labor controlled Canterbury City Council who has lifted their Council Rates by $367.20.  Comparisons of their rates for 1/7/05 – 30/6/06 and 1/7/06-30/6/07 are as follows:-

Ordinary-Residential up form $965.10 to $1,291.05; Infrastructure Levy – Res from $51.60 to $68.85; domestic Waste Services $240 to $264.

The rate notice advised that “your rate bill is calculated using land value supplied by the NSW Valuer General.  Accordingly, your rate increase this year may exceed the 3.60 percent rate cap for 2006/07.  Valuations queries should be directed to the Valuer General’s Office.”

Is this a backdoor operation to use ratepayers as cash milking cows by the NSW Morris Iemma Labor Government by utilising their agency, the Valuer General’s Office, to assess land values upwards?  Who gave Canterbury City council permission to charge ratepayers an unconstitutional Infrastructure Levy for Road and Pavement repairs when this is already incorporated into their Council Rates?

 $5,100 COUNCIL PHONE BILL FOR SILENT NUMBER

This exclusive by Larissa Cummings was published in the Daily Telegraph on Monday, September 4, 2006 .

Councillors who talk all day on mobile phones, running up thousands of dollars in bills, are keeping their numbers a secret from ratepayers, it can be revealed.

A Daily Telegraph investigation found that in one case a Sutherland Councillor who had a bill of $5,100 over 16 months kept her number “restricted” from ratepayers while using it for Liberal Party Fundraising.

Councillor Marie Simone had her mobile phone number promoted as the contact number for ticket sales to a Liberal Party fundraising dinner last month at Jones Bay Wharf .  Mrs. Simone listed her number on fliers promoting $250 tickets for “an evening of gastronomic grandeur with Peter Debnam MP NSW Liberal Leader” held at Doltone House on August 15.  Ms Simone is not alone in asking ratepayers to pay for a private mobile phone.

Others with big mobile bills for private numbers include Bankstown Councillor Grant Lee (7,686.24) Willoughby Mayor Pat Reilly (6,630.71) and Fairfield Mayor Nick Lalich ($3,358.91).

They want ratepayers to leave a message on their home answering machines.  The revelation comes after The Daily Telegraph last week reported how elected members of nine councils had run up a $160,000 bill over 16 months on their ratepayer-funded mobiles.  Until last week Ms Simone had denied resident access to her “restricted” mobile number by not listing it on the council’s website.

After the Daily Telegraph asked her to explain the reason for the restricted access Ms Simone immediately removed the restriction and listed the mobile phone number on the website.  Ms Simone, responsible for the third of Sutherland’s $16,057.12 mobile phone charges between January 2005 and May 2006, said her phone bill proved she was a hardworking councillor.  She said all mobile expenses above $300 a month were covered by her annual councillor’s salary of $17,795.  She insisted the Liberal Party dinner did not reflect a political alignment.  She said her mobile number was listed on the invitation because she was representing the Italian Chamber of Commerce.

“It was held for the Italian community,” she said.  Despite admitting she used her council mobile phone to organise the ritzy dinner Ms Simone said most calls were made chasing up council matters for residents.

 “LEST WE FORGET” BECAUSE OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THEIR BUREAUCRATS APPARENTLY HAVE FORGOTTEN

 Special report: diggers wanting pensions branded liars Veterans fight to be believed By Alison Rehn Daily Telegraph Political Reporter Monday September 4, 2006

War veterans are being driven to breaking point and at least one has committed suicide because investigators hired by the Federal Government to verify their pension claims are effectively labelling them liars.

Dozens of veterans said they were upset and angry at ex-servicemen who work for NSW based company Writeway Research Service, which investigates veterans’ pension claims.

The Government pays Writeway to verify wartime events which veterans claim caused them stress.  In most cases, Writeway find the historical evidence to back up the veterans’ claims, leading the Repatriation Commission to grant veterans part of full pensions.

But in some cases Writeway does not find any evidence and publishes findings to that effect, leaving an already alienated group of veterans questioning their tours of duty, resulting in depression.

Alan Parfitt claimed he developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of serving in Vietnam .  Mr. Parfitt was psychologically scarred after he hacked a dead body from a fishing net which had wrapped around a boat propeller.

Writeway researchers could not find any evidence to support this and so the Repatriation Commission did not grant Mr. Parfitt a pension.  Mr. Parfitt appealed and the Veterans’ Review Board found the event did happen, and was highly critical of the Writeway report.

“The Writeway report was wrong,” the board said.  “The board expresses concern with the inaccuracy in a report provided for a fee.”  Four and a half years after he first applied for the totally and permanently incapacitated pension, the Repatriation commission granted it.

Raewyn Bastion’s husband Bill committed suicide after he began the battle for a pension.  Writeway researchers looking into an incident Mr. Bastion claimed, caused him to develop post traumatic stress disorder suggested “boredom, tedium and isolation” were the biggest issues facing troops at Ubon in Thailand, were he was stationed in 1962.

Mr. Bastion was denied a pension.  He appealed, but mid-way through the process committed suicide.  Yesterday Mrs Bastion said her husband “couldn’t face anymore.”  “He came home at one point and said, ‘what do I have to do to convince these people I’m not lying, kill myself?” she said.  “He was rushed to hospital.  I had only had him home a few weeks before he did just that:  Killed himself.”  Mr. Bastion was granted a pension several months after his death.

Veterans’ Affairs Minister Bruce Billson said it was “wildly unfair and inaccurate to fit up Writeways as somehow doing something sinister.”

Writeway director John Tilbrook said attacks on the company were the “personal vendettas” of a number of veterans.

We would like it to be known that less than one per cent of elected members to Federal, State and Local Government and their Bureaucrats have served in Australia ’s defence force.

“Lest We Forget”

 FREE TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES IS A HOWARD-VAILE COALITION GOVERNMENT ‘FANTASY’

The chief executive of Australia's largest manufacturer of steel products, BlueScope slams free trade Steel, has called for a reversal of Australia 's pursuit of free market ideology to save Australian manufacturing industry.

Kirby Adams, American by birth but Australian by choice, was speaking  at the American Chamber of Commerce on July 14, where he reported  on the current state of BlueScope's global operations and commented on the Federal Government's trade and industry polices.  Formerly BHP Steel, BlueScope is not only Australia's largest steel manufacturer, but also has steel manufacturing plants in many other countries, including China, Thailand and the United States, where it is growing rapidly.