Hi all,
Was watching the news and saw comments relating to how immigrants will be exploited by the new visa class being used to supply labor to mines in NT. It struck me as being pretty absurd given immigrants are already being exploited by both private and government businesses all over Australia already.
I am a security dog handler, I work on Railcorp property in NSW protecting trains from vandalism. I am a white Australian however 95% of my colleagues are Indian, Pakistani, African.
I have been involved in a fight with Workcover NSW, Railcorp and the company that supplies security to Railcorp since September last year over conditions and pay and it is unresolved and it looks like I will lose my job and nothing will change.
Its unfortunate that I cannot post images here since I managed to take photographs of the conditions but I will attempt to describe what is going on with words.
Railcorp contracts a security company to provide security officers to protect Railcorp property. Railcorp is a government owned business. Railcorp provides about 45 dollars to the company per guard per hour. The company provides about 15% of the guards itself, it then contracts other companies at around 27 dollars per guard per hour. The subcontracting company then hires immigrant labour for as little as 14 to 18 dollars per hour.
That may sound like a great wage but in comparison to what I earn (24 to 38 dollars per hour, plus holidays, sick days, superannuation) its terrible. I was told by my colleagues that they were advised by my company (not Railcorp) but one of the subcontractors to apply for the dole and they would be paid cash in hand so that they would "have a good wage".
The conditions are as follows: many sites have no shelter, no clean drinking water, no toilets, no lunch room. The supervisors refer to the immigrants as "blackies". They are required to be on call 24hrs. Some work 7 days a week, often required to perform back to back shifts of 12 hours, so work 24 hours without a break. They are fired without cause - one case I found particularly disturbing was an African being fired because a cleaner didn't like Africans being in their lunch room so she reported him for sleeping, he wasn't sleeping he was filling out his logbook as required but he was never asked, just told to leave site.
At the site I worked the 'lunch room' was a dumpster, with its lid tipped over and propped up with a piece of timber. The dumpster was the only shelter on site. It was used to hold refuse taken off the commuter trains as they were cleaned and so it contained feces, blood, vomit, urine and anything else that the cleaners swept off the trains. I have a photograph of this.
I have another photograph of the filter which provided the only water which the guards drank on a daily basis. It hadn't been changed in several years and was used to filter water that was recycled and not fit for human consumption.
The conditions that these guys are working under are 3rd world and they exist today, not in the future if and when Gina Rhineheart imports her own workers.
Was watching the news and saw comments relating to how immigrants will be exploited by the new visa class being used to supply labor to mines in NT. It struck me as being pretty absurd given immigrants are already being exploited by both private and government businesses all over Australia already.
I am a security dog handler, I work on Railcorp property in NSW protecting trains from vandalism. I am a white Australian however 95% of my colleagues are Indian, Pakistani, African.
I have been involved in a fight with Workcover NSW, Railcorp and the company that supplies security to Railcorp since September last year over conditions and pay and it is unresolved and it looks like I will lose my job and nothing will change.
Its unfortunate that I cannot post images here since I managed to take photographs of the conditions but I will attempt to describe what is going on with words.
Railcorp contracts a security company to provide security officers to protect Railcorp property. Railcorp is a government owned business. Railcorp provides about 45 dollars to the company per guard per hour. The company provides about 15% of the guards itself, it then contracts other companies at around 27 dollars per guard per hour. The subcontracting company then hires immigrant labour for as little as 14 to 18 dollars per hour.
That may sound like a great wage but in comparison to what I earn (24 to 38 dollars per hour, plus holidays, sick days, superannuation) its terrible. I was told by my colleagues that they were advised by my company (not Railcorp) but one of the subcontractors to apply for the dole and they would be paid cash in hand so that they would "have a good wage".
The conditions are as follows: many sites have no shelter, no clean drinking water, no toilets, no lunch room. The supervisors refer to the immigrants as "blackies". They are required to be on call 24hrs. Some work 7 days a week, often required to perform back to back shifts of 12 hours, so work 24 hours without a break. They are fired without cause - one case I found particularly disturbing was an African being fired because a cleaner didn't like Africans being in their lunch room so she reported him for sleeping, he wasn't sleeping he was filling out his logbook as required but he was never asked, just told to leave site.
At the site I worked the 'lunch room' was a dumpster, with its lid tipped over and propped up with a piece of timber. The dumpster was the only shelter on site. It was used to hold refuse taken off the commuter trains as they were cleaned and so it contained feces, blood, vomit, urine and anything else that the cleaners swept off the trains. I have a photograph of this.
I have another photograph of the filter which provided the only water which the guards drank on a daily basis. It hadn't been changed in several years and was used to filter water that was recycled and not fit for human consumption.
The conditions that these guys are working under are 3rd world and they exist today, not in the future if and when Gina Rhineheart imports her own workers.