Dominos exploits International student workers and migrants

Have you ever eaten at Domino's before? I know I haven't and there is a good reason why as the people behind making the pizza are being underpaid or being scammed by the Head Office. In the last year alone there has been a few store openings in Melbourne.

Image from USAtoday

The scam explained

Dominos sells sponsorships for about $100,000-$150,000 and that will give them a visa (457 or 187 visa) to stay in Australia. Most of the stores are bought by foreigners who then bring their own people in.  But if the store closes because of no money then the migrant will be sent home. Many International students are being underpaid at many of their stores.

Many of these migrants develop anxiety problems because they could not pay the ludicrous price and all the other things. The pizzas there are cheap around $5-$20 per box where as in a standard restaurant it would be more like twenty.

After two years many of the owners quit or sell up shop. About 30% of stores earn under $21000 in a week.

Work conditions

Many of the workers are underpaid just like 7-11. Also many of these students work in unfavourable conditions such as wearing a hairnet over summer and wearing black in summer. These worker shifts are often changed by the manager to make them look good.

Our response to all this
We are saddened by all this and in the meantime don't plan to shop there unless they change their working conditions as well as pay people the right amount of money. Paying people cash in hand is a trend for most Asian places and some fast food places and its wrong.

On July 1 the Government is planning to scrap penalty rates and things will get worse. Homelessness will be on the rise as well as the cost of living will increase

Students are being underpaid in restaurants

It is that time of the year again and many students are looking for jobs. Many students would have just arrived with little or no money and will want to work. Here we report on some of the latest cases of underpayment

 Lately Fairfax and Meld have reported that students are being underpaid yet again.

Image: Creative commons via Meld Magazine

Particularly in Chinatown, students are being paid $8- $10. In some of the top end ones and the more popular ones such as Wagaya students are being paid $14 (as of last year). Student often don't know about their rights at work and they sometimes try to ask their boss. But the boss says no or fires them straight.

Being underpaid can sometimes gives students stress. And students don't need that stress during the semester. Their fees are high enough as it is. And then there is the food and other things like transport. 

Mamak is the latest one where it was reported that students were getting $8- $15 an hour and no overtime.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has a calculator in which you can check your wage entitlements. This is really easy to use and its important for students to know their rights when it comes to pay. You can also find out the minimum hourly pay here which is set by the national wage standards

Meld and AFIS's workshop on how to look for a part time job

This workshop was very informative and we had got lots of useful information on contracting, part time work and volunteering. It was held at Victoria Uni in the city. Now there were six sessions which students had to pick. The information session was free for all to attend.

Part time jobs
Anna from Navitas stressed it was a good idea to get one as it will show prospective employers that you know how to work in a team and that you know the work culture in Melbourne. She said that for your first resume it should be one to two pages and you should list your hobbies. You should also get a second person to have a look at your resume as it may contain some mistakes.

Navitas often run workshops on these so do go and have a look.

Contracting vs employment
This is a very grey area for International students. Contracting is where you work for yourself and you need an ABN for that. You are responsible for yourself and you have to pay your own taxes. Working for an employer means that you are paid by the hourly rate for the work that you do and that the employer pays the tax and the super for you. You should only have  one superannuation account and when you leave the country for good 62% of it is paid back to you. The other 38% is for tax.

Many students fall under "sham contracting" meaning that many employers get away with not paying the tax and other things

Volunteering 
You can volunteer in Melbourne during your studies. But don't volunteer for big companies when they should be paying you as that is exploitation.

On the 7th-10th of September there is a virtual careers fair run by the City of Melbourne so do keep an eye out on their Facebook page for the event.

STREAT at RMIT

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015 as it is a health food place

STREAT is a little store at RMIT giving skills to people in need. They are a charity helping the homeless with free coffees when people hand in their filled coffee card.

At the front of the store

Today's sandwich

Making the sandwich

Like Melbourne Central they sell food, but a limited amount. They sell the same sandwiches made freshly. It is run by staff and volunteers which are very friendly

My sandwich was lovely. It was made with the freshest ingredients sourced locally.  The juice was also lovely too and there was no added sugars except from the sugars from the natural oranges.

My sandwich didn't take long and they were happy to add spinach in which gives it some protein to the meal.

Its a good thing that RMIT are putting in more healthy food options for students and staff in the city campus. They should do the same for the other campuses.

Visa crime linked to Australia post

Image courtesy of Meld Magazine and Wikipedia Commons

We talk about another visa and migration scam and you can read about this here.

In a recent Fairfax Media report Australia post is linked to visa crime in the name of one of its contractors Mr Singh. Mr Singh is a billionaire contractor, known to drive Ferrari. But he is also known for one visa scam: employing students for money. Mr Singh has employed thousands of International students and has promised them a visa for work or for study.

But no such thing has happened. Heaps of students study at St Stephen's one of his schools and they work in Australia post retail outlets in Bundoora, Narre Warren and in outer suburbs. Many of the victims of the scam are Indian students.

The students fees at the college is $10000 but they received not much training. Instead they were asked to work full time for him at the postal places.

On the morning of the 5th of April the Federal police raided his home and arrested him. They also arrested two others and they confiscated the ferraris. The government cancelled his contracts.

Our response
Its great to see that this sort of thing is being investigated and stopped, but what about other things like illegal colleges all over Melbourne? We would like to see more closures of these as they are fake colleges. Students there are plenty of real colleges such as RMIT and Melbourne and Monash

In 2012 the workers union wrote to the Government asking for their intervention in this and to make sure that workers are paid fairly.

I paid $800 for careers advice

Students have you ever been targeted by a careers counselor and been asked to pay lots of money? Well this new students Xin Wang from China did encounter this and here is her story.

I am a new student who wanted some advice about a part time job and so I went onto Weibo.com and found an ad for careers advice near my house in Glen Waverley. I didn't want to spend one hour travelling to and from the city.

Initially at the first free meeting I was very impressed by the clean office and the very professional nature. Moreover the place was a short train ride away to Mount Waverley.

My consultant asked a lot of questions of me and seemed very knowledgeable. He also suggested some key areas in my resume to work on. I was not even told about LinkedIn which is a way to get your foot in the door.

Then there was the contract. I was asked to sign away immediately and not been given time to think it through or ask for advice. I was then asked to hand over $800 or go home.

I did hand over the money out of desperation to get a job and to get noticed by employers. I then booked for three more sessions with them to get them to help me find a suitable job and go over my resume. 

They helped me alright but I applied for hundreds of jobs and got nowhere.
Paying $800 was not worthwhile. In the end I had no job and no knowledge of doing a resume. I should have gone to the careers service in uni.

Also I had no knowledge about LinkedIn which the University said that it is important to know about. I could have got a job via LinkedIn.

Study Melbourne Info Day to come

This Saturday the 14th of March is a very important day. Why? It is the Study Melbourne day of course.
Study Melbourne Info Day is organised by AFIS in what promises to an amazing day full of fun, friendships and essential information.

In previous semesters the event was at the Drill Hall outside the market.

This time the event is in RMIT's Storey Hall which a purple and green building right next to the Green brain. The location is diagonally across the road from Melbourne Central and RMIT has its own tram stop outside the free tram zone.  Like previous years, there will be volunteers standing at the entrance to greet you.

There is bike parking available but its at the owners risk.

Like previous semesters there was always free food and the free food is usually a sandwich or two. But if it is a sunny day they might just do a BBQ outside in Bowen st.

The theme is fun, friend and fact and the event is on from 12pm-6pm. Do register for this free event on Eventbrite.

Students still get ripped off

Students are still being ripped off by their employer and its about to get worse. We talk about the latest case in Gloria Jeans.

The latest case is at the Gloria Jeans in Caulfield where about 22 staff, mainly International students were underpaid. According to Fairfax media the owners of that franchise were asked to pay about $110,000 in wages.  A third of its employees were under the age of 21.  The students were owed between $219- $18,000.

This coffee shop is performing very badly and yet according to the Judge this couple and their company Primeage Ltd were not paying the people properly. Primeage was fined $80,000 and the couple got a $30,500 fine as well the order to back pay their employees.

Many of them were not provided with meal breaks and other entitlements such as payslips. Payslips need to be provided at least one day after they are paid.

This has happened before last year and the courts and Fair work were really harsh in the ruling this time.

Natalie James from the Fair Work Ombudsman said that "this should be a warning to all other employers".  It is also common for the retail and hospitality industry when they are performing badly to underpay their staff, but it is illegal.

In Sydney many students still don't know their rights. They are being paid $8-$10 per hour cash in hand which is illegal. One Papparich place in Broadway is being investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Many of the students there are in Australia to study English, TAFE or Foundation

It has always been RNIS's concern as well as CISA's and its about to get a whole lot worse especially for big branded companies like Pappa Rich and Gloria Jeans. We hope that these employers do the right thing or Australia will lose its students to other countries

International students being exploited in the workplace.

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.

Networking night with Newcomers Network

Newcomers Network has been around for a while now and we explain why you join this wonderful association.

The Newcomers network was founded in 2001 by a lady called Sue Ellson. We speak to Sue at this event that has attracted a lot of Newcomers to Melbourne. She has her own website for newcomers to Melbourne.

The aim of Newcomers Network.
The meetups started five and a half years ago and it has been going strong ever since. This group meets up every second Wednesday at the Metropolitan Hotel on Lonsdale st where it is steak night. It is free to join, however you ave to pay for your own food and drink.

The aim of this group is to help you to find your feet in Melbourne whether it is to find a job or to make new friends. It is also to help assist with the move from where ever you are in the world to Melbourne. Moving to Melbourne can be quite challenging and if you are prepared for that then you will enjoy the ride

Finding jobs
Sue said that is important to "network" with people and go to the industry related events. It is also important to volunteer to get the much needed work experience and to get your references. You also need to ask the right questions at the right time. Knowing how to say "no" is important.
You also need a "truthful" Linkedin account. That said its important that people nominate you for the correct skills.

The social culture in Melbourne
Melburnians love to talk about a few things; one being football. Melburnians are patient people and hate "tall, rude poppies (people)". People like to try lots of different things and make new friends. Many Melburnians are sociable and love to help International students

Here are the deets so that you can come along to the next one. Make sure that you come to the next one.

To register for the next event, click here.

Franchising expo

RNIS was invited to the event by the Franchise Council of Australia

The Franchising expo was on last month and we went to this as there is a lot of scope for a Postgrad student to own their own business. Postgraduate students can work full time whilst studying.

Bing Boy, United, Chattime and other franchises were there. We got to sample Bing Boy's offerings, taking away one free bing voucher. Bing Boy would be great for a student as they are on the lookout for more franchises and the lifestyle is great

A franchise is a rapid way of selling goods and services. There are a few aspects to owning a franchise that students need to know.

Perks of owning your own franchise
There are a few things such as support, training and guidance, brand recognition, control and the freedom to start again. You don't need a lot of experience to own a franchise, you just need the ideas and the motivation to get going.

Personality
 "What can I do?" is something that you need to think about. "What can I bring to the franchise?"
You need to be a positive person that is open to change at any moment. You need motivation and you need to be able to manage a team. Communication is a must

You must be open to any negative feedback. 90% of the time this is genuine. You must be honest. Everyone makes mistakes.But it is what you do to rectify these

Organization is a must. You must have good work/lifestyle balance. You must be able to put in 14-16 hours a day, 7 days a week

You have to work hard, your franchise does not make money for you. You are responsible for your own money.

Legal stuff
There are some things which has to be done before you officially open.
You have to have meetings with the franchisor. The franchisor has to give you a contract.
The franchisor needs to give you a disclosure statement saying what the costs are in renting, supplies etc.

Once you start the job you must pay all workers properly as well as giving them rest breaks and other allowances as deemed by Fair work.

Do your research
Make sure that you talk to current franchise owners of the same franchise that you are going into. Do go and look at ASIC's site to make sure that the franchisor is of good character.

Costs
Make sure that you consider the day to day costs of running a franchise-hiring staff, advertising, rent etc. Can you afford it? Your accountant will help you work all this out. The accountant will help you to set up the business and with the fees. Your accountant needs to be qualified with the CPA and needs to be one that specialises in franchising.

There are risks involved in owning a franchise.  A business fail has many consequences so its a great idea to do your homework before you start. And establish yourself properly.

Thanks to the Franchise council for inviting us.

The opportunities for graduate jobs are about to get worse

Students are you looking to stay on in Melbourne after you graduate? What are your future plans? We explain the job situation.

The Jobs market at the moment. Image courtesy of Adam Troyn on Facebook.

The Financial Times has just released on a report on the difficulties of finding work after graduation. The reporters did a small survey about four months after graduation and they spent many months analyzing this data.

At RMIT about 58% of graduates have difficulty in finding a job after graduation for Creative Arts. This indstry is slowly dying. Graduates in the psychology, science and communications field have had some difficulties in finding jobs even though they are well paid ones.

Melbourne is no better with 65% of graduates looking for psychology jobs after they graduate. Also Health sciences, languages and science graduates are having difficulty finding jobs. Science jobs is also hard to come by for VU graduates with about 65% of them still out there looking. Psychology and science at Latrobe is pretty similar with well over 50% of graduates looking for full time work. Swinburne says that 54% of graduates are looking for jobs within the Science sector but their IT sector is pretty good with only 35% of graduates looking for an IT job.

Latrobe's dentistry sector is pretty good with only 6% of graduates looking for jobs.

So what next for students?
"Its better to do some part time casual work whilst at uni" says Anna McCloud@Navitas at the latest AFIS info day. Danny Ong from Monash said the same thing, but he also stressed the point that volunteering helps you to get your foot in the door.

Anna also stressed the point that recruiters are now looking for candidates through Facebook and Linkedin. "Do start early and don't leave it to the last minute", she says. That advice is true as Sally has struggled to get a great job.

What are your tips for looking for a well paid job? Do share it below.

Daiso underpays its staff

Another store underpays its students. We explain the story and why its important to speak up.

Daiso is a Japanese chain store which has five stores in Melbourne. This year it was found that Daiso has been underpaying 27 of its staff. This happened a lot at the Mid town plaza store in the city. Mid town was opened in 2012 with others opened shortly afterwards.

Everything there is $2.80  Most of the time when I went into that Daiso most of the staff were really unhappy. Some of them claimed to be local, eventhough they are not.

Most of its staff are on student visas which is a big concern for us. But at least Fair Work has forced Daiso managment to repay their staff and do an enforcable undertaking.


The 27 current and former employees complained to Fair work. This is not the first time that this incident has happened in 2012 where 10 people were underpaid. Most of the employees were not paid all of their entitlements. Most were not paid penalty rates for working nights and weekends. Daiso was forced to pay back $38,000,000 to its employees.

Lets hope that Daiso lifts its game.

Lesson learnt: You need to speak up if you are being unpaid unfairly.
Says Connie of Eastern Legal district centre on AFIS day: " You need to know your rights and the minimum legal pay per hour". The minimum wage is different for each level and you can check on this site   .

Otherwise that employer will just get away with their wrongdoing. Most employers do the right thing but there are some that employ international students and think that they can get away with this.

Careers fair 2014

Hosted by Vic Uni it was a free event for those that pre planned. Meld has previously written about it and so have we but we wanted to give a heads up on some and exciting things that happened.

This year there are a lot more automotive courses and building courses and appreticeships for students. VACC has quite a few and Masters has also got a few.

Woolworths has a few jobs going for students at the moment. Thomas Dux is included in the Woolworths program.

Students could also work in Mcdonalds as they are always on the lookout for people.

Recruitment is now online and students are encouraged to sign up to Linkedin as well as plan their careers from the early stages of their program. They also have to think what makes them stand out from the crowd and what skills do they have that will fit the business. Students also have to think about what they can bring to the business

Rebecca Fraser a consultant also advises on writing cover letters and having a professional online profile. " More and more employers are going online" she says. And they are searching for candidates via Google. One tip she says is to "Google your name" and see what you come up with. Don't put anything online that is too negative about a business, otherwise they would not hire you.

Be positive about a business (if you can that is.). Don't use Facebook on a work computer unless the job specifically says you can.

Many people neglect a cover letter. Rebecca says that this is one of the worst mistakes that someone can make as a cover letter will tell employers that you are right for the job. It has to suit the key selection criteria in the ad.

Many thanks Victoria University for hosting this successful event.

Volunteering with MASCA

We explain a well known, not for profit student council and why you should volunteer for them. 

Chinese chess

MASCA is the Malaysian Association of Students Council of Australia and they do lot of things for students in Australia.

MASCA is a not for profit organization which has started in 2011. Their base is in Melbourne Uni somewhere. They are always on the lookout for volunteers.

Congkak- something in which you can volunteer in

One of the things that they do is the Fiesta Malaysia event which is set to bring everyone together.

Another event that they do is the Annual Malaysia Sports games which is about people, power and passion. They accept all sorts of people. The committees are hard working.

The Fiesta Malaysia event was fun. I made a few new friends plus got some free food and drink. But it is isn't about the food and the drink; its the fun and the friendships.

Watching the congkak sets and having a go was fun.

Leandro has been volunteering for about a year and a half and he really enjoys it. He made a lot of friends along the way.

They have been nominated in the CISA awards so do get behind them for the rest of the year and the next year!

Do visit their Facebook page and find out how you can be involved.

Concerns over exploitation of International students- our thoughts

International students are being exploited at work by racism and not being paid correctly. Some are being asked to do trial shifts. Students are being paid as little as $7 an hour as studies say. We explain

Many of them come to Australia with no knowledge of work rights. Many of them are desperate to find part time work and they apply for the first thing that they see without research into what the business
 The universities don't tell them beforehand at the orientation sessions. They just talk about their services etc. AFIS did do a good job about rights but not many students attend these sessions.


CISA is doing a great job on their campaign to stop exploitation which has only just started.
So how can we enforce the students to go?

There are some cases where students are being asked for an ABN (Australian Business Number) so that employers can avoid legal obligations such as tax etc. Students may not know that they are running their own business when legally they are working for the employer. When it comes tax time students don't know how much they can claim.

To the employer: If the Australian employers (the real ones) don't get away with this , why should you?

To the students: Make sure you do your research about the business and a good way to do this is by signing up to forums such as Glassdoor which current and former employees review the business

To the current students: where have you had a less than favorable experience at work?

Fair Work Ombudsman targets the shoddy cleaning companies

In these last few weeks Fair work Australia has done some auditing on the cleaning companies that hire International students. One of the companies is Assetlink.

‘It is not acceptable for organisations to outsource work to the lowest-cost contractor and turn a blind eye to any subsequent unfair treatment of low-paid workers. Such behaviour can be detrimental to an organisation’s reputation and may also be considered unlawful.’ (FWO, 2/7/13) said the Ombudsman.

Assetlink denied these allegations

Image courtesy of Indian Herald

The students who worked at Melbourne's Law court building cleaning it, worked for Assetlink. Earlier on in July a workers union called United Voice raised concerns about the company. In this instance students had to have had their own ABN. They also missed out on ther entitlements such as sick leave etc. They were paid $6.35 LESS THAN THE LEGAL MINIMUM WAGE.

 United Voice have released a report. The findings of this report are:

• These students were bullied. Some of them were racially abused. The Indian students who were employed in these subcontracting companies were often mistreated. About 50% of cleaners are from India, Bangladesh and Columbia.
• There was a lot of intimidation by the bosses
• A lot of International students are being ripped off by $15000 annually. This hurts our $15 billion dollar education export industry which supports Australian Jobs.
•  International students make up a big chunk of Australian economy.
•  A lot of the reputable office cleaning companies sub contract to other companies in order to maintain costs
•  Three out of four International students don't know about their work rights. A lot of these students were employed under "Sham Contracting" agreements which is illegal
• When United Voice did their report a lot of them were sworn to secrecy and asked not to speak out  by the employer to the Union. The employer would often hide the students and the problems when United Voice came along.
• In another post we talk about Australia being the most expensive place to study.

Under the new Clean start agreement workers will be paid properly.

But what can universities do to warn students about these sham contracting agreements? Meld Magazine has done a good job in warning these students about this sort of illegal work.

In the coming year we would love to see that RMIT and other universities have more information sessions on work rights for International students with some of the unions coming to the unis to talk about their services. RMIT Student Union does a great job in warning them but we would love to see RMIT doing the same thing

Working in the taxi industry- an issue for many International students

And what promises to be a bigger issue for students. As explained by Katherine.

Indian drivers protesting about these conditions. Image courtesy of youngworkersrights.net

Working in the taxi industry has been a big issue in the last few years. A number of students, particularly of Indian and Asian descent work late at night and by themselves. Hence they are prone to attacks by the social misfits and the drunks. Particularly this has been happening late on a Friday and Saturday night in some parts of the CBD and St Kilda. A lot of taxi drivers have been bashed and beaten.

One student who I can recall has had several nightmares after he was beaten by a passenger who refused to pay.

This is a low paying job for many students and will set to be so under the Government's new taxi reforms. This reform promises more taxis and hire cars. That means that it will more low pay and more competition for International students.

And more financial stress on students and their families.

International students are encouraged to voice their opinions. They can visit the Facebook page. There is a protest next Monday at 11am at Federation square.

Rally poster courtesy of Facebook.com

And for the locals? They should think about the International students and their issues when they go to the polls on the 7th of September.

Students have you story to tell? Leave us a message here.

Asian grocceries and restaurants pay as little as $10 per hour

We explore the issue of underpayment which has been going on for some time now. This issue dates back to 2005 where many students worked at 7-11 and places like that.

 Most of these places pay by cash in hand so that they can get away with the law.

I have had many stories of where students work at night time doing back breaking work.

One student who does not want to be named said that he worked in a Chinese take away place in the suburbs. He worked for over 20 hours per week  for about $10 an hour. He was not paid any overtime for the weekends that he worked.

He was wondering how he'd pay his bills or do really well in his studies.

Remember the case of 7-11? Well this is like that. Except in this case the employer hasn't been reported.

Well in this case it is a lot worse where International Students are being paid around $8-$10. Some of them have to do trial shifts where they work for one day to a week for free.

Also in some of the Chinese and Asian places that I go to I have seen many unhappy faces. 

To this very day it is still happening and many students do not know their rights

Have you been unfairly treated at work? Share you story here or you can befriend us on Facebook and share your story there.

Don't work here

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/7eleven-stores-ripped-off-students-court-20110427-1dw4u.htmlHey students don't work here, as they do not pay people properly.