By Vineet Sharma (not his real name)
Edited: Sally Li
I am a International student from India who came to Melbourne in October last year. I come from a rural village in India where my family was really poor. We had to borrow money from the bank in order for me to pay my tuition fees and other living expenses in Melbourne.
I study at one of the most prestigious unis in Melbourne: Melbourne University and I live near Chadstone shopping centre. My rent is about $1000 per month. I also had to pay my monthly of $120.40 to travel to uni.
About two months after my course started I had to look for work. I was pretty desperate and what I did I do? I went on to MyCareer where I saw that a cleaning company called "Glad Group" were looking to hire cleaners. I had no idea that Glad group were recently fined for underpaying Sydney workers, nor did I know of my rights. I knew only one rule and that was: "You can't work more than 40 hours per fortnight".
Glad group is one of the subcontractors hired by Clean start (a big cleaning company) to clean Melbourne CBD offices. I worked at Deakin University as well as in the city, cleaning offices. Hence I traveled a fair amount. Here I was racially abused all the time by my manager as well as being paid at $18 an hour. This is $6-$7 less than the minimum wage. I was being made to do tasks that I could not do.
Soon after I started crying when I was at home. When some of my fellow Indian colleagues complained to the manager about their treatment they were laughed at and they were also threatened with being reported to Immigration. I was scared to go up and complain and I didn't know that I could join a Union which can help with things like these.
So in the end I quit my job and had lost about $20000 in unpaid wages. Not only that I also have to pay the bank back the money at the end of my degree. I hoped to have come here to have a better future and now because of Glad group I have had nothing but bad experiences so far.
United Voice, a union which fights for fair conditions for all workers had their rally in the CBD just reccently. We eagerly hope that Glad Group will stop exploiting international students and start by paying all cleaners a fair wage. We also hope that Vineet gets his money back as well as other students with similar complaints.
If you are being unfairly treated at work you can seek help from a union called United Voice or you can complain to Fair work.
Edited: Sally Li
I am a International student from India who came to Melbourne in October last year. I come from a rural village in India where my family was really poor. We had to borrow money from the bank in order for me to pay my tuition fees and other living expenses in Melbourne.
I study at one of the most prestigious unis in Melbourne: Melbourne University and I live near Chadstone shopping centre. My rent is about $1000 per month. I also had to pay my monthly of $120.40 to travel to uni.
About two months after my course started I had to look for work. I was pretty desperate and what I did I do? I went on to MyCareer where I saw that a cleaning company called "Glad Group" were looking to hire cleaners. I had no idea that Glad group were recently fined for underpaying Sydney workers, nor did I know of my rights. I knew only one rule and that was: "You can't work more than 40 hours per fortnight".
Glad group is one of the subcontractors hired by Clean start (a big cleaning company) to clean Melbourne CBD offices. I worked at Deakin University as well as in the city, cleaning offices. Hence I traveled a fair amount. Here I was racially abused all the time by my manager as well as being paid at $18 an hour. This is $6-$7 less than the minimum wage. I was being made to do tasks that I could not do.
Soon after I started crying when I was at home. When some of my fellow Indian colleagues complained to the manager about their treatment they were laughed at and they were also threatened with being reported to Immigration. I was scared to go up and complain and I didn't know that I could join a Union which can help with things like these.
So in the end I quit my job and had lost about $20000 in unpaid wages. Not only that I also have to pay the bank back the money at the end of my degree. I hoped to have come here to have a better future and now because of Glad group I have had nothing but bad experiences so far.
United Voice, a union which fights for fair conditions for all workers had their rally in the CBD just reccently. We eagerly hope that Glad Group will stop exploiting international students and start by paying all cleaners a fair wage. We also hope that Vineet gets his money back as well as other students with similar complaints.
If you are being unfairly treated at work you can seek help from a union called United Voice or you can complain to Fair work.
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