
Issue No 101		06 July 2001

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News

Hotels Face Workers Quiz

By Andrew Casey

Secret deals allowing major hotel chains to bring in foreign housekeepers could mean there are hundreds of people working in Australia who are being underpaid and overworked.

"The Federal Government has 'fessed up to these secret deals, but they are hiding behind 'commercial-in-confidence' clauses in labour agreement contracts they've signed with hotel chains," Mark Boyd LHMU Hotel Union NSW Assistant Secretary said.

" The labour agreements should be open and transparent, otherwise it's possible for unscrupulous employers to misuse the labour of low-skilled workers from developing countries who don't speak English and don't understand their working rights in Australia."

LHMU Hotel Union members are campaigning to open up the system and they have called on the Government and the Opposition to lift the veil of secrecy.

The Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has revealed in Parliament that the government has quietly expanded the categories of foreign chefs they're allowing into Australia.

" It used to be that the labour agreements were strictly tied to three or four groups of elite chefs. Even then the big hotel chains were only given permission to bring in elite chefs if they signed water-tight agreements to train locals up to these standards so they could eventually graduate to these jobs.

LHMU Campaign

" Following an LHMU campaign in Sydney against the Regent Hotel we've discovered the Federal Government has expanded these categories allowing a wider range of chefs into Australia.

" Minister Ruddock has admitted in Parliament that the categories of chefs now allowed into Australia has expanded to nine - there are unemployed Australian chefs who could easily qualify to occupy jobs for example as demi-chefs."

In March LHMU Hotel Union activists at the Regent Hotel discovered a dozen cleaners and housekepers - from Indonesia and Hong Kong - working at the hotel at well below Award rates of pay and conditions.

These workers were here on visas allowing them to stay up to 12 months - and the hotel had permission to bring in more domestic staff. The Federal government is now re-considering the Regent's right to sponsor overseas workers.

Minister Ruddock has told Parliament there are now more than 30,000 foreigners in Australia on the same type of sponsored working visas as the Indonesian and HK domestic staff working at the Regent Hotel.

Most of the foreign workers on these visas are employed in the hospitality industry.

" The government has admitted they are under-resourced and can only do spot checks - and rarely do on-site checks - to see the system is not rorted.

Near-Slave Conditions

" Because the system is secret, and not transparent, we just don't know how many hundreds of other workers are forced to work at near-slave conditions at some of the most expensive and luxurious hotels in Australia.

" We are aware, for example, of one foreign chef at a major Sydney hotel who is forced to work long hours at a specialist chef category well-above what he was brought out to Australia to fill - but whenever he complains his Australian bosses threaten to have his work visa cancelled and have him sent home.

" He is scared for his family's standard of living and is just not prepared to speak out. How many other foreigners are trembling in our hotels too scared to complain.

" The secrecy must stop. Union activists must be let in on the secret so that the books of all hotels using these workers can be fairly scrutinised.

" The labour agreements must be transparent so that we can all be assured we are not building an economy based on cheap foreign slave labour.

" The labour agreements must be transparent so that we can all be assured that the system is not being used to dampen the wages of Australians or to deny Australians jobs."

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  Issue 101 contents

Interview: A Little Knowledge
Labor's science spokesman Martyn Evans was the Opposition's key player on the Knowledge Nation inquiry. He fills us in on the process.

Education: Theory and Practise
Whether or not you agree with the priorities for of Barry Jones� Knowledge Nation Taskforce, Julie Wells argues its boldness has to be admired.

E-Change: 1.1 Email Nation
In the first of a series of articles on politics and the new economy, Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel argue network technologies are reshaping the fundamentals of society.

Economics: Banking on the Goodwill
Given their history, Evan Jones wonders whether banks can really claim to be "just like any other business"

International: A Deathly Struggle
In this dispatch from PNG, a trade union leader briefs us on the situation following the shooting of seven students at an anti-privatisation rally.

History: Enlarging Human Personality
Mark Hearn argues that Lloyd Ross's post-War approach to Workplace Democracy seems contemporary by today's standards

Satire: Shit is a Four Letter Word
Australian TV drama is lame and gutless just look at the ABC's Love is a Four Letter Word, says Tony Moore

Review: Tribute to an Artist
Dalgarno painted the seagulls circling the seafarer like flies buzzing around the face of a bushman. Thus did the artist depict the maritime worker.

» Academic Freedom On Trial

» Unified Approach to Sheahan Inquiry

» Living Standards Shape as Election Factor

» Clairvoyant PM In Secret Deal Fantasy

» Hotels Face Workers Quiz

» Call for Senate to Decide Spammer's Fate

» PNG � Howard Should Speak Out

» Couriers Buck Over Tax Ruling

» Kempsey Killing Highlights Health Fears

» Checkout Operators Better Paid Than Aged Care Workers

» ACTU Weighs Into Bank Campaign

» Fund Bad Health for Families

» Australian Music Web Radio Station Needs Recruits

» Activist Notebook