FIJIAN AND PACIFIC ISLAND WORKERS PAYING HUNDREDS TO LIVE IN CRAMPED QUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA
ACCOMMODATION COSTS ARE JUST ONE OF THE GRIEVANCES SHARED BY A BROADER GROUP OF WORKERS IN INVERELL AS PART OF THE PACIFIC LABOUR SCHEME. The workers from Samoa, Vanuatu, and Fiji had their shifts at Bindaree Beef Processing slashed during the COVID-19 ec
Alifarete Tuitakali, from Fiji, was shocked when he looked at his net pay for the week of May 4.
“It is AU$56 (about FJ$84), out from the gross pay of AU$496 (about FJ$745.6),” he said.
Deductions for the week included AU$150 (about FJ$225.40) for accommodation, AU$105.61 (FJ$158.70) for relocation costs for flights, visa processing, and ground transport, and AU$50 (FJ$75) to repay a cash advance on arrival.
“We saw our pay slip, I was so very sad. I really wanted to go back home when I [saw] my pay slip,” he said.
Like many of the workers here Mr Tuitakali has left his family behind, all for the chance to send money home. “My wife’s name is Apolonia, and my daughter’s name is Deborah,” he said, as he clutched a picture of his young family.
Mr Tuitakali won’t see them for a year or even longer, depending on how long it takes him to earn enough leave for a visit home.
Workers under the Pacific Labour Scheme can stay for up to three years. Those are three years of his daughter’s life he’ll mostly miss.
“It makes me very, very sad,” he said, glancing down from the picture. Accommodation costs are just one of the grievances shared by a broader group of workers in Inverell as part of the Pacific Labour Scheme.
The workers from Samoa, Vanuatu, and Fiji had their shifts at Bindaree Beef Processing slashed during the COVID-19 economic slowdown.
While some of their working hours were reduced significantly during April and May, deductions from their gross pay by labour hire company Meat Processors continued.
Samoans
Every week, six-foot-tall Andrew Suitupe hands over AU$150 (about FJ$225.40) to sleep on a tiny couch in a cramped share-house in regional Australia, thousands of kilometres from his Samoan home.
For Mr Suitupe, coming to Australia on the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) was a golden opportunity to work hard and earn good money to send home to his family.
But instead, nearly a quarter of Mr Suitupe’s wage is being deducted to pay the rent on a four-bedroom house he shares with eight other Samoans in the New South Wales town of Inverell.
The rest of his flatmates are paired up in bedrooms, so the 25-year-old has taken up residence on the couch.
The living arrangements were set up by the labour hire company Meat Processors, which brought the group to Australia — and has the power to send them home.
For the nine men, talking publicly about their situation is frightening — they fear the prospect of losing the opportunity to work here.
But Mr Suitupe’s housemate David Tusa put his hand up to speak on behalf of the group.
“Nine people to a house, and two sharing [each room], one bathroom and one toilet, I don’t think it’s fair,” Mr Tusa said.
“It’s nine of us here, and we’re all paying AU$150 (about FJ$225.40) a week, each.”
Altogether, the weekly rent is AU$1350 (about FJ$2028).
The median rent for a four-bedroom house in Inverell advertised on real estate site Domain is AU$340 (about FJ$510.96) a week.
“We are paying too much,” he said. ‘Same rights and protections’ as Australians.”
The Pacific Labour Scheme is run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and is intended to provide a much-needed economic boost to island nations in the Pacific. About 12,000 workers came to Australia from Pacific nations in 2019 — most on the much larger Seasonal Worker Programme.
About 1000 workers are currently in Australia on the Pacific Labour Scheme, according to Government statistics. Workers sign a contract with a labour hire company appointed by the scheme, and then they are placed with employers in Australia.
The workers in Inverell are all under contract with labour hire company Meat Processors, which is part of the Food Industry People Group based in Brisbane.
The company said deductions were reduced and suspended during the
COVID slowdown.
Food Industry People Group CEO Darren Basford told the ABC that continued deductions were likely a payroll error that would have been back-paid after a few days.
“There were some errors. That’s not acceptable,” he said.
Some workers did later receive AU$150 (about FJ$225.40) after they complained.
Ni-Vanuatu
Benneth Taribiti, who has a wife and three children in Vanuatu, has pay slips that show he took home AU$47 (about FJ$70.62) from his gross pay of AU$506 (about FJ$760.36) for one threeday work week.
“I feel really sorry for my family,” he said. “I did have second thoughts of going back home.”
The company said it lobbied for JobKeeper payments for workers in the scheme, but it wasn’t successful.
The company also said the houses it rented for the workers did not surpass approved occupancy, and the accommodation fee deducted from their pay included furniture and all utilities.
Mr Taribiti, who lives with eight other people in a six-bedroom house, has been concerned for his safety during the pandemic.
“If we have our own room, we can keep distancing from each other, like 1.5 [metre] distancing,” he said.
“But sharing a room ... we’re just mingling around together. And it’s not really safe for us.”
On its website, the Pacific Labour Scheme states “all participating workers have the same rights and protections as Australian workers”.
It also says it will provide support for workers to access affordable accommodation and appropriate living arrangements.
“The Pacific Labour Scheme … has an in-built pastoral care support function that’s responsible for helping to ensure worker welfare,” said Holly Lawton, a research officer working on Pacific labour mobility at the Australian National University.
The Pacific Labour Facility — the federal body responsible for the scheme — has case workers that are supposed to help resolve any disagreements.
But ultimately, the labour hire companies has the final say.
“The employment contract at the end of the day is between the employee and the employer,” Ms Lawton said.
Darren Basford from Food Industry People Group told the ABC that workers who raised concerns would not be punished.
“The well-being of these [workers] is paramount,” he said.
A member of the Pacific Islander community in Inverell contacted the Pacific Labour Facility about the workers’ concerns.
In response, a case worker wrote that their reduced hours had already been explained.
“In terms of the reduced work hours for Bindaree, the workers have been explained about this from [another Food Industry People Group company] RWM and their site supervisor, as well as what options they have,” the email said.
The case worker also stated workers had options to choose other accommodation with a notice period.
Ellen George, from Vanuatu, is one of those who shares a house with Benneth Taribiti and seven others, who all pay AU$150 (about FJ$225.40) a week.
She said when they complained to Meat Processors that their accommodation charges were too high, they were told they could move — but only if they gave one year’s notice.
Meat Processors said the hundreds of dollars difference in the rental price paid by the Pacific Islanders and the going rate was going to the landlord, or the agent.
Ms George is also confused about other deductions on her pay slip. There’s no indication of total amounts or when deductions will end.
“The problem is I don’t really know how much I owe the company and how long it will take for all these deductions [to come out],” she said.
“With this amount of rent that I’m paying, I don’t think it’s fair and I do regret coming here.
“I just want to go home.”