More work complaints coming from foreign students?

International students who work part-time or casual jobs should seek help from the Fair Work Ombudsman if they experience any breach of their workplace rights.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James has published an open letter to international students urging them to be aware of these rights and to speak up if they have concerns.

International students - more than 560,000 as at July 2017 - make up a large proportion of temporary entrants to Australia.

 “The number of international students reporting issues to the Fair Work Ombudsman is disproportionately low compared to other categories of visa holders, despite the fact that international students represent a significant proportion of overseas visitors with work rights,” James said.

Students’ reluctance to report workplace issues make them particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Many of them believe that seeking assistance may damage their job prospects or cause the cancellation of their visa.

Sixty percent of international students believe that if they report a workplace issue to their employer, the situation will remain or get worse, a study commissioned by the agency found.

Some employers also threaten their workers with deportation or blacklisting from future work if they raise questions about their entitlements.

“In some cases these same employers have altered payslips and underpaid hourly rates in order to disguise the number of hours the student has worked,” James said.

She assured international students that her agency has an agreement with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection so they do not have to fear the cancellation of their visa even when they have worked more hours than they should have.

Records show that despite the low number of international students reporting work issues to the agency, the cases that do get filed involve one or more international students.

For example, last year, 49 percent of litigation filed by the Fair Work Ombudsman involved a visa holder, and over a third of these involved an international student.

Ms James says all international students should visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website, which has information available in 30 different languages.

Among the resources available:

• A guide to calculating the correct pay rates that apply to their work
• An anonymous report function, in 16 languages other than English, that enables nonEnglish speakers to report potential workplace breaches without being identified.

In addition, Record My Hours, an app that equips workers with a record of the time they spend at their workplace and is aimed at tackling underpayment of young workers and migrant workers, is available for download from iTunes or Google Play stores.
Some of the cases investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman:

- Meatball and Wine Bar faces court for allegedly underpaying 26 workers, including visa holders
- Pizza Hut franchisee underpaid staff almost $20,000
- Joint operation uncovers alleged exploitation of overseas workers at Melbourne restaurants
- Melbourne cafe operator back in Court after 54 employees allegedly underpaid $73,000
- Penalties for blatant contraventions in popular Perth restaurant chain
- $72 000 in penalties after international student exploited, dismissed by text message
- Brisbane 7-Eleven outlet faces Court action
- Cleaning operator penalised for refusing to back-pay international students
- Labour-hire contractor signs workplace pact after underpaying Korean workers thousands of dollars