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DIBP gives in to pressure: scammed students will get amnesty
Thousands of 7-Eleven workers, mainly foreign students, who were underpaid for years will be granted amnesty if they come forward and help with the investigations by the Fairwork Ombudsman, the department of immigration has announced.
Immigration minister Peter Dutton initially refused to grant general amnesty and said that the DIBP would look into amnesty on a case by case basis – meaning students had to trust and hope that the DIBP would do the right thing if they came forward to report the abuse by their employers.
This response to the 7-Eleven pay scandal was slammed as appalling by both Lawyers and the independent panel head reviewing the matter. Labor, the Greens, unions and advocates condemned this approach as naive and one that would effectively prevent students from coming forward to help with the investigations into the biggest wage scandal in Australian history.
The DIBP has now dumped the approach announced by Mr Dutton and succumbed to the pressure from many quarters to grant amnesty to every student who comes forward to assist with the investigations.
Michael Manthorpe, the immigration department’s deputy secretary told the senate enquiry investigating the 7-Eleven scandal that international students who came forward to help the Fair Work ombudsman’s investigation, would have “no action taken against them”.
Labor Senator Kim Carr asked if this amounted to an amnesty, to which Mr Manthorpe replied: "so long as they are prepared to comply with their visa conditions prospectively, they won't be cancelled."
There have been media reports that some franchises had threatened to dob-in students who tried to make any form of claims of underpayment. This fear and the distrust of the DIBP have kept students from making claims for compensation and would have effectively allowed franchisees to get away with potentially millions of dollars in underpayments.
It is estimated that some 4000 students were underpaid for years with many owed sums in excess of $20,000. Some reports allege that many workers were paid $10 an hour before tax – well below the award rate of $24 per hour.
