International students are working for about $8-$10 per hour which is way under the minimum wage. Yet on the other hand education agents and universities are painting an all too rosy picture of life in Australia. We talk about our thoughts on this issue.
Agents from various universities go to the prospective student's home countries trying to sell their degrees and advertising for students to come to Australia. But what they tell students is only half the story. The other half of the story is the negativities such as being paid unfairly and the high living costs.
Many students work in fast food places and well known restaurants some of which pays terribly. One restaurant we know of in Melbourne is Dragon Boat on Lonsdale st. It has good yum cha at times but a friend told us that she gets paid $8 hour for the work she does which is pushing heavy yum cha carts and waitressing. She told me that they also do "trial shifts" which is illegal here in Australia. She also said that they ask her to work very long hours sometimes from 10am-12am.
In Sydney Fairfax Media reported that a lot of Sydney businesses including PappaRich on Broadway have been underpaying students for as little as $8-$13. In the last year alone the Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered $1.1 million in wages and businesses have been ordered to pay it back. This is a great start. And what else? The Fair Work Ombudsman has set up a taskforce just for overseas workers. But there could be more such as telling students of their rights in the first instance and that they can complain to the Ombudsman and need not fear about deported to their home country. Which many of them do if they complain to the employer. The only people that can do that is Immigration.
We hope that this year all the businesses in Melbourne and all over Australia pay their workers the right amount. Or otherwise Australia will lose students to other places such as the US. International students is just one of Australia's biggest revenues with about $15 billion dollars being earnt annually. There might be more businesses in Melbourne and if we come across some more we'd be happy to take it up to the Ombudsman and shame them on here.
Agents from various universities go to the prospective student's home countries trying to sell their degrees and advertising for students to come to Australia. But what they tell students is only half the story. The other half of the story is the negativities such as being paid unfairly and the high living costs.
Many students work in fast food places and well known restaurants some of which pays terribly. One restaurant we know of in Melbourne is Dragon Boat on Lonsdale st. It has good yum cha at times but a friend told us that she gets paid $8 hour for the work she does which is pushing heavy yum cha carts and waitressing. She told me that they also do "trial shifts" which is illegal here in Australia. She also said that they ask her to work very long hours sometimes from 10am-12am.
In Sydney Fairfax Media reported that a lot of Sydney businesses including PappaRich on Broadway have been underpaying students for as little as $8-$13. In the last year alone the Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered $1.1 million in wages and businesses have been ordered to pay it back. This is a great start. And what else? The Fair Work Ombudsman has set up a taskforce just for overseas workers. But there could be more such as telling students of their rights in the first instance and that they can complain to the Ombudsman and need not fear about deported to their home country. Which many of them do if they complain to the employer. The only people that can do that is Immigration.
We hope that this year all the businesses in Melbourne and all over Australia pay their workers the right amount. Or otherwise Australia will lose students to other places such as the US. International students is just one of Australia's biggest revenues with about $15 billion dollars being earnt annually. There might be more businesses in Melbourne and if we come across some more we'd be happy to take it up to the Ombudsman and shame them on here.
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