By BETHANY MCKAY and LUCY MAJSTOROVIC
The Victorian Government’s proposed minimum wage boost will not prevent systemic student underpayment, the Council of International Students Australia (CISA) says.
The Victorian State Government urged the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to increase the minimum wage from $18.29 an hour to $19 an hour in a submission published last week.
“Students coming to Australia, think they can get accommodation and find a job easily, but then they come here and are hit with the reality,” Mr Madathil said.
“In Melbourne and Sydney, some students live like they are living in slums … many live in high-rise buildings and you think it’s good, but then you see 20 people living in the one house with two bedrooms,” he said.
One quarter of international students earned $12 per hour or less and 43 per cent earned $15 per hour or less in the lowest paying job they’ve had, a the 2017 National Temporary Migrant Work survey found.
Mr Madathil said the high cost of living led international students to accept low-paying jobs, and that the government needed a new strategy to inform international students of their rights.
“It’s not just once they come to Australia that we can provide them with information ... I think before they come to Australia, they should know their laws and their rights,” Mr Madathil said.
“Just increasing wages won’t help,” he said.
In its submission to the FWC, the Victorian Government said the minimum wage safety net was ineffective if workers were “subject to wage exploitation by some unscrupulous employers”.
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International students working in Australia are often underpaid, and are often too frightened to complain.
The submission said the 2017-18 State Budget included $800,000 in funding over two years for information and services on workers' rights for temporary visa holders.
However, some students appeared more aware of their rights than first thought.
More than 70 per cent of international students who were paid under $15 per hour knew they were earning less than the minimum wage, the 2017 report found.
A Monash University international student, who wanted to anonymous, said some students were too scared to come forward in case they lost their job.
“It is illegal but as long as no one complains it’s all fine,” he said.
International students are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week, but the student said he usually spent 30-50 hours per week at his former job.
He was paid the minimum wage for the first 20 hours and then $12 an hour for overtime.
When workplace inspectors discovered two of his friends were working more than 20 hours a week, both were deported.
Monash University student Georgina McEwen said she had a similar experience at her job at a fast food store in Doncaster.
“When I started working there I wasn’t given any pay for the first month ... I had to keep following up with them multiple times until I got paid,” she said.
Ms McEwen said she was also never paid for an online training course that took half a day to complete.
“If I worked eight hour shifts I was only give one 15-minute unpaid break, and I would be standing up for the whole shift,” she said.
One in five young Victorians are paid under the minimum wage by an average of $3.12 an hour, a different 2017 survey – Young Workers Snapshot: The Great Wage Ripoff – found.
Ms McEwan said she didn't think an increased minimum wage would have helped her.
“They definitely wouldn’t increase the wage. It’s a problem the business didn’t care about at all. I know they wouldn’t change anything.”
You can find your minimum wage and employee entitlements at https://www.fairwork.gov.au/