"This could be a major avenue for recruitment of migrant labour," Dr Howe found. She also warned that Chinese workers looking to send money home were not likely to blow the whistle on employers paying below award rate.
Dr Howe's report, which found the FTA will "greatly increases the pathways for Chinese workers to enter the Australian labour market" to work for Australian employers, also found Chinese companies could choose to import their workforce on projects worth over $150 million – known as "investment facilitation arrangements" or IFAs.
She found that Chinese workers on IFAs must only be paid at the base award rate for their occupation rather than the higher "market salary rate" of Australian workers who have negotiated better conditions through enterprise bargaining.
"This means the ChAFTA could be used to create an IFA which undercuts local wages and conditions because although local workers may expect to be paid a higher rate for a certain occupation as provided for in the relevant enterprise agreement, a Chinese worker may be willing to work for the far lesser rate provided for in the award," she found.
The FTA "provides Chinese employers with a relatively easy way to cut labour costs on infrastructure development projects," the report states.
The FTA will allow Chinese workers to be brought into Australia to work on $150 million-plus infrastructure-related projects, within the food and agribusiness, resources and energy, transport, telecommunications, power supply and generation, environment or tourism sectors.
The Coalition has claimed the framework for IFAs is comparable to "enterprise migration agreements" introduced by the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments but their threshold was set at $2 billion, meaning the FTA will allow for many more projects.
"This could be a major avenue for recruitment of migrant labour," Dr Howe found.
She also warned that Chinese workers looking to send money home were not likely to blow the whistle on employers paying below award rate.
In Beijing, the hourly minimum wage is equivalent to about $3.95 compared to $17.29 in Australia.
Dr Howe's ""This could be a major avenue for recruitment of migrant labour," Dr Howe found. She also warned that Chinese workers looking to send money home were not likely to blow the whistle on employers paying below award rate. "
Where on Earth did she learn of whistle blowers (if are workers overseas) are afraid of sending money/income home? These are NOT smuggled money, black money nor laundered money but INCOMES. Any Aussie or international bank in Australia will remit such funds to any other bank in this world besides China that employers cannot stop; so where is that stated fright? A Rhode educated lawyer in law lecturing may have to take a look at international banking law book, thoroughly before showing off a bit here and there as though are rubbish! NOT sure where you were born but paid to be racially biased is making you like a played fool. Besides, she probably read too many rascals' books of China but has never seen China yet.
Does she prefer to report how she sees the benefits of arriving more and more boat people and mid-east refugees by the thousands per load on and on .. . .. ... .? Let's hear from her, mates !!
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