Wage theft crisis rocks Canberra

A new survey by UnionsACT claims that nearly two-thirds of young Canberrans were underpaid over the past year:

There is growing evidence that employers are purposely flouting Fair Work laws and WHS laws on a vast scale, and young workers are under-reporting incidences of injuries and wage-theft to authorities. In a context where the Federal Government is spending more time attacking unions than dodgy bosses who steal from or injure their workers, employers are increasingly “rolling the dice” when it comes to committing wage-theft or providing an unsafe workplace. For those few employers who get caught, there is little consequence by way of penalty…

Young workers reported experiencing wage theft at alarming rates with 62.4% reporting being under-paid or unpaid for work they have done in the last 12 months. Of those respondents who reported having their wages stolen, 38.34% said they would not try to recover their wages mostly out of fear of losing their job.