The future of enforcement for migrant workers in Australia

Running Head : The legislative framework for regulating wage theft in Australia
THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR REGULATING WAGE THEFT IN AUSTRALIA
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The legislative framework for regulating wage theft in Australia1
Executive Summary
The fair pay for fair work is deeply embedded in labor history and egalitarian standards
in Australia. It is indisputable right that employees are duly remunerated according to the law.
The high profile instances of worker exploitations, academic studies, and federal investigations
revealed that wages theft is prevailing and left unanswered. The commencement of the
provisions of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act, 2005 held that the
commonwealth uses legitimate corporate powers to extend the industrial relationship to shield all
trading corporations in the private sectors.

The legislative framework for regulating wage theft in Australia2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Case Summary.................................................................................................................................4
Evaluation........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

The legislative framework for regulating wage theft in Australia3
Introduction
The wage theft, which can also be termed as worker’s underpayment is a novel feature in
the context of national employment scenery. It is evident from the historical analysis since the
1970s that non-obedience with the service standard cause significant underpayment of
employees in Australia. It is also determined that wage theft is rising in both prominence and
prevalence (Al-Hadi et al.,2019). In the present years, there is a range of public reports and
scandals regarding the non-obedience that affected numerous high profile companies. The
instance revealed by various media investigations is that there is substantial exploitation of
employees in supply chains of nationally recognized brands like seven-eleven, Woolworth,
Grill’D and others. Wright and Clibborn have opined that media information of case in point of
underpayment raised ten times from 2013 to 2017 (Brodnik & Ross, 2018). Thus wage theft can
be determined as non-payment or low-payment of earnings or privileges to the employee by the
employer put in a nutshell a series of activities that negate the legal rights of the workers (Bai et
al., 2017). It is indisputable fact which is recognized by law that every worker is entitled to get
fair treatment in terms of wages and also get remuneration which is as per their effort. In the
recent studies of high profile instances regarding the significant mistreatment of employees, the
academic research and federal investigation have set up that wage theft is going unsolved (Berg
& Farbenblum, 2017). The paper focuses on the impact of wage theft in Australian businesses
similar to Woolworths and the range of recommendations undertaken to eradicate the issue of
wage theft.