Today, in Australia, three sets of reforms set new global best practice standards for protection of migrant workers on temporary visas and prevention of exploitation.
New laws taking effect today introduce powerful portability rights for employer-sponsored migrant workers – among the strongest in the world. Globally, employer-tied visas trap migrant workers in exploitative work and create a profound power imbalance between abusive employers and migrants who cannot complain or leave their job.
As of today, many employer-sponsored migrant workers in Australia will be able to:
leave their sponsor and remain in Australia for up to 180 days while finding an alternative sponsor (previously 60 days)
work for any employer in any industry in Australia during that transition period (or choose to not work)
transition again, for a total of up to 365 days during the course of their visa.
This will shift the power imbalance between sponsoring employers and migrant workers: migrants who are being underpaid or mistreated at work can now walk away without risking their stay in Australia. They will have time to find a new sponsor, and be able to support themselves while searching. This will hopefully catalyse a race to the top, in which employers will need to compete for migrants by offering safe and fair jobs because migrants who were previously trapped in poor jobs can now leave for better employers.
Unlike the few other countries that enable exploited migrants to change sponsoring employers, the Australian laws do not require migrants to report exploitation or demonstrate that they have been victims of civil or criminal exploitation in order to obtain permission to leave their employer and remain in the country while finding a new sponsor.
The new portability rights will apply to
Temporary Skill Shortage visa (subclass 482)
Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494)
Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist) visa (subclass 400)
Training visa (subclass 407)
Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457)
A number of streams of the 403 Temporary Work (International Relations) visa (other than PALM workers) and some streams of the 408 Temporary Activity visa
Unfortunately, these provisions do not extend to Pacific Islanders in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme. It remains too difficult for these workers to change their employer without separating from the scheme.
For more information see: Migration Amendment (Work Related Visa Conditions) Regulations 2024
Today, we are also a step closer to enactment of a new Workplace Justice Visa that enables migrant workers to remain in Australia to take action against an exploitative employer. Under new regulations enacted today, a new Workplace Justice Visa, proposed in our Breaking the Silence report, will be available to a worker who can produce a prescribed certificate by government or another eligible certifier that they are undertaking a ‘workplace justice activity’ as prescribed by the Minister. A legislative instrument will soon set out the details for the certification that will underpin the WJ visa pilot. For more information see: Migration Amendment (Workplace Justice Visa) Regulations 2024
Also today, new protections in the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Act 2024 come into effect. These include protections for undocumented workers, new criminal offences for employers who coerce migrants to breach their visa conditions or coerce migrants to acquiesce to poor treatment under threat of immigration consequences, and bans on employers who mistreat workers hiring additional workers on a temporary visa. For more information, see our earlier post on the passage of the law in February.