In Australia they protect workers rights even the foreign labourers.

Foreign rig workers 'paid $3 an hour'

By Karen Barlow

Updated 48 minutes ago
Big business: To meet demand the call is out for thousands of workers

Big business: To meet demand the call is out for thousands of workers (Lateline Business)

Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman is investigating claims three foreign workers on multi-billion dollar oil rig projects off the West Australian coast worked 84 hours a week for as little as $3 an hour.

Massive mining, gas and construction projects are earning billions of dollars, and to meet demand the call is out for thousands of workers.

Also big business is Australia's visa system. This year alone visa fees will generate $1 billion in revenue for the Federal Government.

But temporary foreign workers are falling through cracks in Australia's immigration system.

Dos Cordilla, Zenry Peteros and Roel Flores are waiting in the Philippines for the ombudsman's ruling on 18 months of work on oil rigs off Western Australia's coast.

They say they worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week as marine painters and general hands around a rig operated by the world's largest shipping company, Danish International, Maersk, for Woodside Petroleum's $14 billion Pluto Gas project.

Next to fully-paid Australian workers, they were earning a fifth of the minimum wage - less than $3 per hour.

"We were being underpaid because our salaries were only for $30 per day," Mr Cordilla said.

"They said the minimum wage in offshore was $400 plus allowance. They said $30 is for only one hour for them."

Lateline has a copy of one of the men's contracts with a labour hire company called Supply Oilfield Services (SOS), showing them working 84 hours a week and earning $900 a month.

Over 18 months they worked for 35 days straight and then went back to the Philippines until another visa could be applied for.

The pay rate of the three workers was made possible through the use of 456 Temporary Business Visas.

Under that visa there is there is no obligation on the part of employers to pay foreign workers the same rate as Australians doing the same job.

Paul Howes, the general secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, says the pay rate is unacceptable.

"We are talking about a rate of pay which you would not even accept in a suburban McDonald's," he said.

"To say that they have been ripped off is being a bit generous really. It was almost slave wages in terms of the Australia oil and gas industry."

The AWU says the three men are collectively owed $400,000.

The men were discovered in February by accident.

After spending most of their time on the Maersk rig, the Nan Hai 6, they were sent to another Maersk vessel, Discoverer, because of worker overcrowding.

On the new rig Australian workers questioned the men about their pay, and the Immigration Department and Fair Work Ombudsman were informed.

Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman, Nicholas Wilson, says the investigation is now "at quite an advanced stage".

The Filipino workers felt that they were locked into a situation they could not get out of.

"I feel sad because I work to get a big salary but the problem is we have the contract here in the Philippines and we know that the 900 for 28 days is enough in the Philippines but we did not get the minimum in Australia," Mr Flores said.

'Immigration crisis'

The painters had come to Australia on short-stay 456 visas, which had been arranged for them through the Australian embassy in the Philippines by SOS.

"We don't know anything... the visa in Australia. All I know, if you get a visa going to Australia, when you stay in Australia if the immigrations stamp in it when we go to Australia, that's fine," Mr Flores said.

Immigration lawyer Maria Jockel says the 456 visa is intended for "genuine business people who intend to come to Australia for a very short visit to undertake business meetings".

"In such instances policy permits specialist workers in highly skilled areas.. up to 21 days maximum which is an urgent nature and which doesn't detract from the Australian labour force," she said.

Following a similar case in 2008, then-Immigration minister Chris Evans tightened the laws to ensure that foreign workers were paid according to Australian wages and conditions.

But Ms Jockel says the demand for entry to Australia is straining the system.

"I think the whole system is totally and utterly overwhelmed," she said.

"I would use the word in crisis - the Department of Immigration is 130,000 applications a day."

Mr Howes says many of the workers coming on on 456 visas, longer-term 457 visas or on working holiday programs are unaware of their rights and responsibilities.

"What is going on here is an emergence of trafficking in ultra cheap labour which is not only is exploiting those workers but is causing a great risk to Australian rates of pay and standards of living," he said.

Woodside Petroleum denies the men were involved in Woodside operations, and Maersk rejects any assertion that it rips off workers.

Lateline was unable to put any direct questions to Maersk's managing director as numerous interview requests were declines. Lateline also had questions for Supply Oilfield Services but they have not been available for comment.

The Immigration Department says it cannot comment on cases under official investigation.

But it says all allegations of worker exploitation will be given close attention and investigated.

The Department also says the Government is currently reviewing the sanctions regime for employers who employ illegal workers, with a view to strengthen the penalties.

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