ABN misuse leaves migrant hospitality workers exposed

One in three migrant workers in hospitality surveyed by the Migrant Justice Institute (MJI) were engaged as contractors on an ABN, some while washing dishes and serving takeaway. The Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, said the ease with which workers can be placed on an ABN is a structural weakness that can strip workers of the protections they are owed as employees, and one that can be fixed.

“The question is whether this reflects a genuine enterprise by these workers, or an employment model built on avoiding lawful wages and conditions,” Commissioner Evans said. “When a worker is put on an ABN, the burden shifts to them. Before they can recover unpaid wages, they first have to prove they were really an employee. For a migrant worker on a temporary visa, that can be a hurdle too high.”

“Recovering unpaid wages is important, but prevention is better than remedy. How easily workers can be moved onto an ABN is a structural problem, and structural problems can be addressed through law and policy. If we want to prevent exploitation, we have to change the structures that allow it.”

The data draws on 2,992 people working in hospitality on temporary visas. It shows 82% were underpaid, and one in two were paid below the National Minimum Wage. Hospitality also had the highest rates of cash payment and missing payslips of any industry surveyed, and 97% of workers always paid in cash received less than their legal entitlements. Across all industries, MJI’s research found that the more severely migrant workers were underpaid, the more likely they were to report indicators of forced labour, as defined by the International Labour Organization.

“Paying cash off the books, withholding payslips and putting kitchen hands on an ABN are not administrative slip-ups. They are ways of making underpayment hard to see and harder to challenge.”

“These problems are structural, and they have become embedded in our economy,” Commissioner Evans said. “Many of these workers are in a vulnerable position, and for too many speaking up feels like too big a risk.”