Submission to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee inquiry into the Fair
Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill | September 2022

We are staunchly opposed to all forms of forced, coercive and underpaid labour.

It is legal for employers to exploit people on Centrelink payments, disabled people and incarcerated
people by paying them far below the national minimum wage for meaningful work – in the case
of Work for the Dole participants, paying no wages at all.

Piece rates also enable employers to underpay, disproportionately harming migrants. Problems with labour hire pale in comparison. Government-run and -endorsed programs are breaching peoples’ rights under international law including by violating the forced labour convention, the convention on the rights of people with disability and the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
This situation is unacceptable and is a matter of racial and disability justice. It has gone on far
too long.

You can read the submission in full below.