Unfair working conditions on the Gold Coast for international students, especially Chinese, are becoming alarmingly widespread. Overseas students claim they are being exploited by employers, who are paying them below award wages for casual work. They are forced to accept slave labour wages and illegal working conditions under Australian law.
Most students work in restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, and convenience stores. The salaries for part-time jobs range from the restaurant or supermarket minimum wage of $22 per hour for more professional jobs, like personal care assistants.
A 24-years-old Chinese student Guyi Wei worked for one year in a Gold Coast Chinese restaurant for $10 per hour, which is the wage for 17 year-olds. However, she said, “$8 or $10 per hour is a usual wage for students. Everyone knows this happens but everyone complies and if I didn’t take that job others would. I had no choice.”
The minimum wage for 20-year-olds is $15.15 per hour. However, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman, international students are being paid wages meant for those under 17, 18 and 19 years of age.
Another Chinese student, who wishes to remain anonymous, currently works in a 7-11 convenience store where his legal wage should be $18 per hour in the daytime and $24 per hour at night. However, he only earns $9 in the day and $11 at night.
“I work 20 hours for $200, but only 10 hours is recorded, so it looks like I’m paid $20 per hour,” the student said. “I am so tired. I have to move heavy stuff and work all night sometimes, but I’m paid less.” Despite this, he can say nothing about it because his employer might fire him and he needs this job.
Many students either accept the job conditions or face extreme financial stress if they do not work. For example, a young Chinese man, Rui Wang used to have two jobs; he was a cashier in an Asian market and delivered pizza at night because he had to support himself. Also, many students share housing, sleeping in lounge rooms to save money. Rent, food and transport are expensive on the Gold Coast and students struggle to meet these costs.
These low wages and the subsequent need to work overtime are not restricted to Chinese restaurants and other businesses managed by Chinese. It also happens in businesses operated by other nationalities.
A young Korean lady, Hyunjung Shin, works in a Japanese restaurant for up to 32 hours a week and is only paid $8 per hour. Her friend, also Korean, is working in a souvenir shop for $10 per hour.
Another Japanese student is paid just $9 per hour in a pizza shop with a Libyan employer. He once worked 60 hours in one week and earned $700, but his employer said nothing about the 20 hour per-week limit set by the Australian Government for student visa holders. Instead, he gave him a bonus for working extra hours. These students are forced to ignore the visa conditions or lose their income.
Ngan Minh Thao Tran, a Vietnamese girl, was paid $50 each day, which was $5 per hour, in a Thai restaurant for two weeks training. However, she said she learned nothing and worked by herself. “They didn’t help me a lot, but those two weeks were called ‘training weeks’, so I quit after two weeks, ” said Miss Tran.
After that, she found another job in a Vietnamese takeaway where she was paid $8 per hour for the first two weeks, then $9 per hour for the first year and then her wages increased by $1 an hour every six months. However, her minimum wage should have been $12 per hour when she started. “The wage increases so fast!” said Miss Tran with a wry smile.
One student who worked in a Taiwanese restaurant was only paid $4 per hour for six months. He said he knew it was unfair, but he needed the cash at the time. He stressed that the employers “want to save money in tax, save the money they withhold from the employees and there is no way to stop it.”
These examples indicate that students are not always given fair and legal treatment. A large number of employers pay students less than the minimum wage and justify it by claiming the wage is “tax free”. However, this is illegal. Fair Work Australia requires that all earners in Australia pay tax.
Increasing local unemployment rates are also making it difficult for students to find a job that pays fairly. It seems support from universities is necessary. Griffith University Career Development Officer, Maja Rauchle says she has heard of this terrible and difficult situation, and “students are not being treated very well”.
She states that if students report these illegal pay rates to authorities they may lose their jobs. Students are forced to accept these conditions because they are not informed about worker’s rights, making them vulnerable to exploitation by corrupt employers. Ms Rauchle added, “Often, it isn’t an Australian employer, but someone from another country.”
However, employers argue that this is not exploitation. Chinese employer Zhongyuan Zhou, running a Japanese restaurant, pays employees from $10 to $20, claiming the pay rates depend on whether the staff are in training or are senior staff. He asserts his employees are paid according to their abilities and hours worked.
“High wages demand high skills as well,” Mr Zhou said. “If a chef has good cooking skills and works full time I will pay him about $20; if a waiter does not use good communication skills with customers or is not here when I need him, I won’t pay him a lot.”
Mr Zhou took over the restaurant less than a year ago and has tried to change employment conditions to become more compliant. He said, “I want to follow the Australian rules but it’s not like I’m the only business cutting costs; others pay the same or even less.”
“I will definitely try to change this situation and follow the Australian laws, to make my restaurant more compliant. I will also avoid having students work more than 20 hours,” said Mr Zhou
Compliance is also a test for Indian employer, Kripal Singh, who is running an Indian restaurant named Kohinoor. He said he has no experience with this situation because he thinks it is wrong. “It’s unfair for students,” said Mr Singh. “I’ve heard this happened in an Italian restaurant. They said tax is the reason they pay cash.”
Mr Singh said some students need money and want to work more time, even if they are paid less money. However, he also thinks if a person does not have enough skills and does not know anything about the job, he cannot expect to receive the same high wage as someone who has experience.
Another employer, Weiguo Ruan from a Chinese restaurant, says he does not want to employ Australian students but only Chinese students, because they can speak both English and Chinese. This is good for customers, because most customers are Chinese tourists and many do not speak good English, according to Ruan.
Workplace equality is important and international students have the right to receive fair treatment. Students are aware of the need to protect this right. According to Workers on 457 – workers’ rights in Australia, students “have the same rights as any other workers in Australia”, but are unsure what to do about it. This unfair treatment represents an irony in relation to non-compliant employers and international students.
An interesting aspect is that most employers who pay international students less than the minimum wage are people who come from overseas themselves, which means international employers are depriving international students of their rights. However, not all employers are from different countries, some of the offending employers are Australian.
A Chinese student Le Yin is working for a cleaning company named Skinners Superior with an Australian employer named Sara (not her real name). Mr Yin is working as a housekeeper where the legal salary is $20 or $22 per hour, but he is only paid $10 per hour. He asked Sara once if he could get more money, yet Sara refused his request and said if he did not want this job he could go away. “I don’t know about the locals’ salary but other international students only get $10 per hour,” Mr Yin said. “What's worse is they’re in arrears with my wages. They haven’t paid me for a month.”
He said the company always changes rosters at the last minute, which means they can cancel his work any time, even after he arrives at the work place. The reason he is still working there is because he needs work experience in the hospitality industry for his university studies. While the international students’ place of study is usually the main source of information about employment rights, universities cannot officially interfere. However, universities do provide a job support system. For example, Ms Rauchle advises students of the correct way to find work, how to write their resume and how to be successful in an interview.
Ms Rauchle says the Fair Work website has a lot of information about work conditions and wages, as well as the Careers and Employment websites from most universities. She also mentions that a good level of English is one of the most important requirements for international students in Australia.
However, employees are fighting back. Bond University Chinese Student Community President, Mingjin Zhou, is working with Chinese Student Communities from other universities and planning a lecture to inform students of the laws regarding employment in Australia and offer advice on how to proceed when a student is affected by unfair work conditions. Mr Zhou said one of his friends has to live in the garage because his parents loans for him to go to university and he wants to save money. He said, “Students should gain a clear perspective of their rights and raise their awareness about ways to protect their welfare. This lecture will be in their best interests.”
One international student, Chun Song, said he went to university orientation but there was only information on the companies. “If universities could guarantee students an intership while they study that would be great,” Mr Song said.
He said he understands that because rents are high, employers do not make a good profit and if they paid students normal salaries they might not make any money. Despite this, they are not allowed to deprive students of their rights and salaries.
“We just want to have the same rights as the local students,” Mr Song said.
(1971)
Contact List
A Chinese Student, Guyi Wei - 329633703@qq.com
A Chinese Student, Le Yin - zk_yinle@hotmail.com
A Chinese Student, Rui Wang - 466086371@qq.com
A Student, Chun Song - songchun127@hotmail.com
A Japanese Student, Hyunjung Shin - hyunjungshin@hotmail.com
A Vietnamese Employee, Ngan Minh Thao Tran - 0423 560 568
A Chinese Employer, Zhongyuan Zhou- 758334143@qq.com
A Chinese Employer, Weiguo Ruan - 5526 7528
An Indian Employer, Kripal Singh - 0430 450 100
A Career Development Officer, Maja Rauchle - m.rauchle@griffith.edu.au
A Chinese Student Community’s President, Mingjin Zhou - 531479917@qq.com
Are international students treated unfairly in Australia? <http://www.australiaforum.com>.
Australia in brief Tourism and international students. <http://www.dfat.gov.au>.
National minimum wage. <http://www.fairwork.gov.au>.
Part-Time Jobs For Students. <http://ezinearticles.com>.
Uni students from China (2002-2012). <http://andrewhong.net>.
Working in Australia: visas, taxes, minimum pay and rights. <http://www.meldmagazine.com.au/>.
