Beware unethical labour hire companies – Don’t risk the headlines
Labour hire has recently made headlines in Australia and across the world for the mistreatment of overseas labour in processing, manufacturing and production plants. The complaints were founded in terms of long shift work, below award wages and substandard work and living conditions. A large number of the workers were 417 working-holiday visa-holders recruited by a number of select labour hire contractors that are currently under investigation via Chinese newspapers, Facebook and Taiwanese backpacker websites.
APG want to assure our customers and interested businesses that while there has been a lot of news about questionable labour hire companies, APG only operates in an ethical manner for workers regardless of if they are local or on 417 visas.
This isn’t the first time labour hire companies have been in the spotlight over their exploitation of overseas visa holders.
Last year, APG published news around coverage about questionable labour hire companies in the Queensland farming industry who are fulfilling farming contracts by exploiting travellers and offering a range of benefits that they never deliver on including visas and wages.
Unfortunately, all these cases do is undermine the majority of labour hire firms who operate ethically and within Australian Labour Laws.
APG has been in business since 1999 and during that time the labour hire landscape has vastly changed. New regulations and laws have opened up opportunities to make up local labour shortfalls with overseas labour. One in 10 workers in Australia are on a visa. APG ensure all contractors are paid award wages and treated the same under Australian labour laws and conditions regardless of whether they are local or on 417 visas.
APG works with some of the largest labour hire contractors in Australia across a wide range of industries. As such, we have been extensively audited across all areas of our business, from work safe practices, wages, working conditions as well treatment of overseas labour. Each of these audits has returned a 100% positive result.
Australian businesses and workers, both local and on working visas, need to know that the labour hire company they are contracting with are operating in a legal and ethical manner, ensuring equality and fairness for all. At APG we pride ourselves on managing all our workers and contracts in this manner.
