Foreign Workers Being Exploited in the Minimum Wages in Australia

Running head: AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Foreign Workers Being Exploited in the Minimum Wages in Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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1AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Introduction
Exploitation of workers can be defined as the action of treating an employee in an
unfairly and unethical way in order to obtain additional benefit from them for which they are not
being appointed and paid. Unsatisfactory compensation, excessive workload due to unscheduled
work and workplace discrimination all falls under the term Workers exploitation. Exploitation
also implies that it is not voluntary but is preferably achieved through pressure, threat and act of
violence by the workers. In Australia, exploitation of foreign workers by wages has got increased
in a commendable level in the past decade. Migrant workers are treated like slaves by a good
number of organisations in the mentioned nation. Organisations even disagree to practice
internationally agreed labour rights when it comes to foreign workers. The major exploitations
performed on immigrant workers in Australia includes obtaining insufficient wages, working
long hours, the absence of standard safety in the workplace, insecure employment, sexual
harassment as well a discrimination and lack of verbal freedom. These unethical acts are
imposing a negative impact on the workforce of Australian organisation and as a result,
employee attrition rate and conflict within the organisations have increased to a commendable
amount of time. The research question for this research includes “why are foreign workers
being exploited in the minimum wages in Australia?” Considering the fact that qualitative
data analysis will b performed in order to conduct the research, the scope of the research includes
in-depth analysis of the research topic with the help of relevant literature as well as theories.
However, one of the major constraints of the research is the lack of primary data which could
have enhanced the authenticity and validation of the research to a great extent. Exploitation of
foreign workers is a burning issue in Australia and this act is imposing a huge negative impact on
both the reputation as well as the revenue of the organization. Hence this research will help the

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management of the organization which acts are causing employee exploitation and how these
acts are adversely affecting the company in the long run.
Discussion
Body part 1
In this portion, a brief description of the theory, as well as literature use in order to
answer the research question, has been discussed. According to the exploitation theory of
sociology, exploitation takes place when one social group posses the ability to take for itself
what is produced by another group. The mentioned socialist theory is from Marxist perspective
and the concept is central to the idea of social operation. According to this theory, profit of the
industrialists and the employers results from the exploitation of the wage earners. The socialist
theory also known as the exploitation theory rests on the labour theory of value that claims that
value is intrinsic in a product with respect to the amount of labor that has been spent on
manufacturing the product (Fuchs 2012). Thus the worth of a product is created by the labours
who have manufactured the same and reflects its finished price. The profit obtained from selling
the product should ideally be divided among the workers and the employer. This theory includes
both economic as well as non-economic forms like sexual exploitation of women. The mentioned
theory is highly relatable to the research topic since it states that the wages received by the
worker do not demonstrate the employers take the full value of the work since some of the
economic value. The socialist theory states that taking away a majority of the value created by
the workers by the employers are known as capitalist exploitation (Tomba 2014). The theory of
Eugen Von Bohm-Bawerk has highly argued this theory. He argues that instead of exploiting

3AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
workers, capitalists actually help the same to earn by providing them with job and salary in
advance of the revenue from the goods produced by them.
According to Larrain (2013), “Labour cannot increase its share at the expense of capital.”
The capitalist theory argues that the theory of exploitation has ignored the dimension of time in
the process of production. As per the theory of Bohm-Bawerk, since the workers do not produce
the whole value of production, the labour should only be paid at the present value of any
foreseeable output. According to (Watson 2013), The Australian labour-hire companies are
highly exploiting vulnerable workers in order to reduce their investment cost and thus enhance
their revenue. All over Australia, labour-hire organizations are hiring mainly casual as well as
temporary workers on behalf of big companies. Majority of the casual and temporary workers
are migrants and foreigners. According to the Fair Work Commission, a casual worker is defined
as an employee who is not liable for providing service to the company at regular working hours.
The company, on the other hand, posses the authority to terminate a casual worker without any
prior notice. However, in Australia, casual workers are made to work more than their stipulate
work period. Excessive work pressure not only destroys their work-life balance but also results
in stress, anxiety and other physical and physiological diseases.
Body part 2
In this paragraph, the critical evolution of the theories and literature discussed in the
previous section will be performed. According to researchers, the theory of sociology points out
the discrimination faced by the workers from time immemorial. The exploitation theory, also
known as the theory of labours assets that the institution of private property allows the fewer
number of privileged to reap off the benefit of the labours without contributing anything on the