Campaign for Justice
You are invited to join with ACRATH is seeking justice for 22 workers from Vanuatu who were exploited in Australia. The workers arrived in Australia in July 2014. For seven weeks they worked tirelessly on six farms sometimes receiving only one meal a day. When they were not paid their salaries and asked for their payment they were threatened with referral to the police and deportation.
March 24th will be the second anniversary of the judgement made in favour of the Fair Work Ombudsman and the vulnerable workers. The Federal Court of Australia awarded the workers $77,649 in unpaid salaries and the labour hire firm was fined $227,000 for violating the Fair Work Act. After waiting almost four years the workers have still not received their unpaid salaries. The workers came to Australia as part of the Commonwealth Government Seasonal Workers Program, a part of Australia’s aid program to Pacific Islands. Further information about this case can be found here.
ACRATH invites you to write a letter to the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer, Minister for Job and Industrial Relations, stating the workers have waited too long for justice to be served and asking that an ex-gratia payment be made to the workers. A sample letter can be found here. Please use this as a basis for writing your own letter and then send a hard copy to the Minister. (Image: http://www.devpolicy.org/)
