BY TOM FLANAGAN
SYDNEY — The case of eight stonemasons, who were kept in a barbed wire enclosure and paid $145 a month, has highlighted the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia.
The stonemasons were brought to Australia from India as skilled workers to build a Hindu temple in Helensburgh, NSW. The workers had temporary residence visas. According to the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the workers had no means of leaving the locked temple complex and were only allowed out every three months on closely supervised excursions. Permission had to be sought to visit the local doctor.
Department of immigration officials have confirmed that the Temple Association signed documentation stating that they would comply with Australian wage standards. It is a condition of sponsorship of foreign workers on temporary residence visas that the employer agree to comply with Australian industrial relations laws and local levels of remuneration and conditions of employment.
The workers had complained about their pay and conditions since arriving in Australia.
A rally in support of the stonemasons was held in Sydney on March 9. Speaking to the crowd of 200 construction workers, Arthur Rorris, secretary of the South Coast Labor Council, explained that the masons had been living in huts usually used as construction site crib rooms. Four or five workers had to sleep in each hut, with their beds only 30-40 centimetres apart.
The secretary of the NSW Labor Council Michael Costa explained that Labor Council had received legal advice that the immigration minister Phillip Ruddock has a "duty of care" to the workers. Unless the stonemasons received award entitlements, Coast warned, the Labor Council would fund legal action to hold Ruddock personally liable for the workers' situation.