Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme

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Pacific Islander seasonal worker in Australia AusAID & Private Sector Development (10667284914).jpg
Pacific Islander seasonal worker in Australia

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme is a temporary migration program that allows Australian businesses to hire temporary workers from certain Pacific island countries. [1] The scheme is a type of guest worker program, with participants able to work in seasonal jobs of up to 9 months or in longer-term jobs of between 1 and 4 years. [1] Launched as the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme in 2008, workers were initially employed in agriculture, but the scheme has since expanded to other industries including meat processing and aged care. [2] [3]

Contents

As of August 2024, over 30,000 workers were employed through the scheme, with about 90% employed in agriculture and meat processing. [4] The Australian government has described the scheme as a "triple win" that addresses labour shortages in Australia, provides well-paid employment to workers, and provides skill development and remittances to developing Pacific island nations. [5] [6] [7] But the scheme has been criticised for facilitating exploitative practices. In a 2024 report, the New South Wales Anti-Slavery Commissioner highlighted poor working conditions and practices of modern slavery facilitated by the scheme. [8] The scheme has also been criticised for facilitating brain drain from Pacific island nations [9] and for providing limited benefits to workers. [10] [4]

History

The predecessor of the PALM scheme began in 2008 as a pilot program to bring in unskilled and low-skilled migrants from Pacific island countries to work in agriculture. [4] The pilot program initially had low take-up, attributed to a lack of awareness among employers and a lack of demand for labour due to an existing supply of backpackers and widespread illegal employment in the sector, [11] [12] but was assessed largely positively in a final evaluation report. [13] In December 2011, the government announced its intention to launch a full-fledged version of the scheme, the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP). The SWP was similar to the pilot scheme in most respects, but three new sectors - aquaculture, cotton and cane - were added, and the cap on the number of workers was expanded to 12,000 over a four year period. [11]

In 2018, the Australian government launched the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS), which allowed for longer-term employment than the seasonal agricultural work permitted under the SWP. In April 2022, the SWP and PLS were consolidated into the uncapped, demand-driven PALM scheme. [7] The scheme has been progressively expanded into new sectors beyond agriculture. [3] The number of PALM workers in Australia grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many other populations of temporary workers were barred from entry to the country. [14] The number of participants grew from about 6,000 in 2019 to about 30,000 in 2024. [2]

Operation

Criticism

One of the primary criticisms of the PALM scheme has been the inability for workers to change employers. Workers in the PALM scheme are typically tied to a single sponsoring employer with very limited ability to switch employers and are generally unable to bring their families with them. [2] Many have argued that this inability to change employers enables exploitation and makes it more difficult for workers to speak up about wage theft and poor working conditions. [20] [15] [21] [8] Concerns regarding worker exploitation have been present since the earliest days of the scheme, with the Australian Institute of Criminology undertaking research into the potential for worker exploitation in the pilot scheme in 2011. [22] Several employers have been investigated or fined for underpaying and exploiting PALM scheme workers. [23] [24] [25]

Workers under the PALM scheme often have less access to government programs and benefits than residents. The Australia Institute has published research showing that PALM workers are often taxed at a higher rate than residents and have limited access to their superannuation. [26] Some workers have been overcharged by their employers for services like accommodation and transport, and often have deductions made from their pay to cover the cost of their flights to Australia. [27] [4] Most PALM workers do not have access to Medicare and must take out private health insurance. [10] [4] Workers also face high remittance costs. [28] Together, these costs limit the portion of workers' income that is ultimately saved or remitted.

Others have raised concerns that the scheme primarily benefits Australian businesses and that the benefits to Pacific island nations and workers are exaggerated. PALM workers in Australia make up 9% of the Tongan working age population, 5% of the working age population of Vanuatu, and 3.4% of the working age population of Samoa. This has led some Pacific leaders to express concerns about brain drain and the effects of the PALM scheme on their domestic economies. [10] [9] [5] Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu have all commenced reviews of their participation in offshore labour mobility schemes as a result of these concerns. [9] Between 2018 and 2022, workers sent home $184 million, but paid $280 million in tax, rent, and day-to-day expenditures while in Australia. [2]

Some have also criticised the scheme for the rate of worker deaths and injuries. 29 participants died in the 2022-23 financial year and 233 critical incidents involving injuries to PALM scheme workers were recorded between 2020 and 2023. Between 2021 and 2023, between 10 and 14 participants died in boating and car accidents, 17 died due to medical conditions, and the cause of 17 additional deaths remained under investigation as of December 2023. [29] In August 2024, representatives of the Fijian government announced plans to visit Australia to investigate working conditions after a Fijian woman died of a brain tumour while working at an Australian abattoir, with some alleging that workers had faced restrictions around sick leave and accessing healthcare. [30]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme". Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Withers, Matt (23 October 2024). "The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme is helping some workers but harming others – it needs to be reformed". Lowy Interpreter. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
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