New visa type and laws introduced to tackle temporary migrant worker exploitation
5 September 2024
The federal government has introduced a new type of temporary visa and laws to protect migrant workers from exploitation.
Migrant workers, including those employed as labour hire workers, can face significant risks of exploitation by employers – such as in relation to wages, conditions and accommodation.
Exploitative conduct by labour hire providers in Victoria can be reported confidentially by workers, stakeholders or members of the public via the Labour Hire Authority (LHA) website. Licensed providers must comply with relevant laws, or risk licence cancellation or legal action by LHA.
To encourage reporting of exploitation, the new Workplace Justice visa enables migrant workers to stay in Australia while they fight a workplace claim.
Introduced in July as part of a two-year pilot program, the new visa provides full working rights and applies for between 6 and 12 months. Applicants can also re-apply for the visa if needed.
The federal government also brought in new laws from 1 July 2024 to protect migrant workers against visa cancellation when they allege exploitative or abusive behaviour by their employer.
The laws include new work-related offences that make it illegal for employers, including sponsors and labour hire intermediaries, to:
- coerce or pressure a temporary visa holder to breach a work-related visa condition
- coerce or pressure a non-citizen without a valid visa to accept or agree to a work-related arrangement
- use a worker’s temporary visa status to exploit them in the workplace (including in relation to existing visa conditions and requirements to support a future visa application).
The laws protect all migrant workers, regardless of visa status, including people who have a visa with work rights, an expired visa and those working in breach of their visa conditions.
The laws cover a range of work-related situations where exploitation might happen, including:
- underpaying a migrant worker, or pressuring them to work more hours than allowed by their visa conditions
- threatening to cancel a migrant worker’s visa, or coercing them to hand over their passport
- coercing a migrant worker to engage in unwanted sexual acts
- pressuring a migrant worker to accept inadequate living conditions, such as poor housing, inadequate meals or access to running water and electricity.
Both the visa and protections are being trialled for two years. For more information, visit the Department of Home Affairs website: