UWFB: The Seven Circles of Temporary Migrant Worker Hell (part 1)

The SUWA Show - Squatters and Unwaged Workers Airwaves

What's worse than not having a job? Try working in slave-like conditions.Uncovering the lie that unemployed Australians are “too lazy to pick fruit” exposes the use and abuse of temporary migrant workers.In this first of a two-part show, we hear eye-opening stories from Kate, Sherry and Tex. Kate has been picking fruit and vegetables for about three years now. Kate trained as a computer engineer in her native Taiwan. With a background in sociology, Sherry Huang came to Australia as a backpacker, and now works at the Migrant Workers' Centre. We also return to a conversation Kevin had back in December 2020, with his mate and gun-picker, Tex Stone.Reports and rumours going back to the early 2000s consistently warn that the vast majority of horticultural workers earn less than the minimum casual rate, some as little as $3 per hour. This is so widespread some commentators describe wage theft as a business model.CONTENT WARNING: Mention of sexual harassment between 32:30-35:00 Show NotesMigrant Workers' Centre88 Days A Slave - documentary projectTowards a durable future: tackling labour challenges in the Australian horticulture industry by Joanna Howe, Stephen Clibborn, Alexander Reilly, Diane van den Broek & Chris F Wrighthttps://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/business-school/research/work-and-organisational-studies/towards-a-durable-future-report.pdfCreditsTheme music:One in Ten by UB40Music:Hall of the Mountain King by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200072Artist: http://incompetech.com/Gavotte En Roundeau 4th Lute SuiteExzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/orangefreesounds.comSound effects permitted for non-commercial use under license“Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)”