Working Holiday visa Subclass 417
According to a report, backpackers in Australia are being repeated that they possess identical working rights as others, post it was found that though two Melbourne businessmen gave themselves salaries of $500,000, those armed with Holiday Permits were denied anything.
Stielow and Locaso, the men in question have been slapped with a penalty of $11,880 each by a court, in the wake of accepting a firm they previously possessed and managed underpaid 8 workers a combined total of $14,964.
The fines were slapped in the Federal Circuit Court in the aftermath of a probe by the Fair Work Ombudsman of their now non-operational marketing and distribution firm, Invivo Group.
Reportedly, 7 of the 8 workers were foreign workers in Down Under with 417 Working Holiday Permits, and this comprised three young persons. A university student of Australia was the other underpaid employee.
The work was as door to door sales persons providing free power boards to homes, in tune with the Invivo Group having been given a contract by a Melbourne based organization to set up power boards in homes as component of the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Scheme of the Victorian Administration.
Stielow and Locaso accepted violating workplace laws via offering 7 of the 8 no money in spite of them providing their services from 50 to 117 hours. They gave the other worker only 16% of his legally recognized claims.
The court ruling stated that there had been serious abuse of young and defenseless workers, and this comprised students & overseas backpackers. The court heard that the Fair Work Ombudsman found the underpayments when it duly examined appeals for help presented by employees.
Fair Work Ombudsman proclaimed that a high priority is placed by it on taking action to safeguard the rights of overseas workers in Down Under, as they are time and again not completely conscious of their place of work rights even as they may be unwilling to protest.
Reportedly, at present, the Fair Work Ombudsman is taking officially permitted action against Locaso and an additional marketing and distribution group he had possession of and ran over claims of underpayments to 4 workers.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is keen that backpackers understand that they should not be offering their services for free, and should be offered the minimum salary even if given free lodging. It has witnessed a swell in the figure of requests for help arriving from visa holders doing a job in Oz.
During the month of August, 2014, the Fair Work Ombudsman started a national appraisal of the wages & circumstances of foreign manpower in Australia on the 417 Working Holiday Permit Plan in the wake of widespread claims that some unprincipled operators were taking advantage of backpackers.
