The Migrant Justice Institute's report today on two-thirds of temporary visa holders being paid less than minimum wage confirms the deadly downward spiral on standards in the transport industry.
In road transport, the deadliest industry in Australia, transport clients squeeze contracts to generate more profits, and transport businesses are forced to undercut each other to win work. This leads to practices like companies using sham contracting arrangements to engage workers on ABNs to avoid paying them their workplace entitlements. In the Migrant Justice Institute's survey, migrant workers were more than four times more likely than the general workforce to be engaged on ABNs, with 42% of those workers underpaid.
In the gig economy, platforms have used loopholes in our laws to pay workers under the minimum wage in many cases. Significant proportions of these workers are migrant workers. Hearings commence next week on world-first minimum standards for food and beverage delivery workers, after the TWU reached agreement with DoorDash and Uber Eats last year.
In 2026, the TWU has aligned over 200 Enterprise Agreements to expire, and is in the midst of bargaining to lift standards across road transport.
The TWU is supporting calls from the Migrant Justice Institute for an expansion of sham contracting accountability, and proactive detection and support to lift standards.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
"The Migrant Justice Institute's landmark survey has explicitly exposed what we have seen for far too long in transport: unscrupulous companies exploiting migrant workers to either misclassify them or use loopholes in our laws to undermine pay and conditions.
"Whether it's below-minimum wage payments in the gig economy, or truck drivers engaged on sham contracts, migrant workers are being massively underpaid and fearful of retribution if they speak out. There must be enhanced accountability for companies using sham contracting to deny workers their basic legal entitlements like superannuation and leave.
"The Transport Workers' Union is acting to lift standards in transport through laws passed by the Albanese government, and through a coordinated industrial campaign this year which will allow tens of thousands of transport workers to take industrial action if necessary. We need to see sham contracting stamped out entirely, and all workers, regardless of their visa status or employment label, with decent, safe jobs."
