How's this for a business model?
Imagine if you didn't pay people to work for you, they paid you a fee just to connect them with opportunities to get work.
Imagine if on top of this, other business owners paid you to bring workers to them, and then you also took a cut of each person's wages?
How would you pull this off? Well, you build in a set of safeguards.
First, you choose an industry that depends heavily on temporary, unskilled labour. In Australia, this includes agriculture, meat processing and cleaning.
Second, you run your entire business from a mobile phone.
Third, you ensure that your entire labour force are migrant workers - ideally with language barriers, no social supports and working in breach of their visas. If any of them complain, you can threaten to call immigration.
Sound too good to be true? Apparently not in Swan Hill, Victoria - and in some other parts of rural Australia.
Investigation reveals abuse
Yesterday, journalists Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker reported on precisely this business model. Through interviews and undercover investigations, they shone a spotlight on the experiences of probably hundreds of Malaysian men and women who are working, without visas, picking fruit in Victoria.
While the conditions reported vary, all share common features - extremely low wages, overcharging for sub-standard accommodation, almost complete dependence on the goodwill of their 'organisers' - and extreme vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
One undercover journalist, Saiful Hasam from Malaysian language daily newspaper Utusan Malaysia, easily found his way into this system. By the time he paid rent and other fees to his recruiter, he was paid around $2.50 an hour.
If you think this is fairly benign, backyard "cash economy", think again. This is organised crime, using a tried and tested business model throughout Australia.
Are these cases of forced labour or modern slavery? Without further investigation, it is very difficult to say. Key indicators of forced labour are that a person cannot leave or refuse a situation, and that they are effectively kept in that situation through some sort of threats, deception or coercion. According to the Global Slavery Index, there are more than 4000 people in some form of modern slavery in Australia.
What we do know is that environments like this are breeding grounds for modern slavery, and there are far more cases than are ever identified.
Take for example, some of the earlier cases where police have become involved. In 2014, during a raid by police to expose money-laundering activities, around two hundred migrants were discovered in a tomato production facility in Carabooda, Western Australia. This site, operated by brothers Michael and Cahn Le, supplied tomatoes to the country's major supermarkets, including Coles and Woolworths. The Le brothers were allegedly turning over millions of dollars, not just in produce but through their services as a "body shop" providing labour to other end users.
Police interviews with the workers revealed allegations they had been treated like prisoners, significantly underpaid and were heavily indebted to labour brokers. Weapons and drugs were found on the property. These stories strongly suggest a backstory of criminal exploitation, possibly even forced labour. Unfortunately, we will never hear the account of the migrant workers because they were almost immediately deported.
What can be done?
Recognising the existence of a problem is a critical first step. In October 2016, the Australian Government created the Migrant Worker Taskforce. Headed by Professor Alan Fells AO, the Taskforce brings together a range of government agencies, to find ways to identify and prevent migrant worker exploitation. As the Carabooda case shows, there is an urgent need to ensure that law enforcement, the workplace regulator and immigration are all pulling in the same direction.
Identifying and leveraging the power of all of the potential players in the system is a critical next step. To date, the Taskforce does not bring in any representatives from business, unions or civil society.
Unions and civil society organisations are the eyes and ears of a community, and can provide a critical lifeline for temporary migrant workers who may fear the police or immigration.
Businesses, such as Coles and Woolworths who buy produce from these industries, have a key role to play. While some companies are beginning to voluntarily focus on this issue, with initiatives such as "Australian Brands' Pledge against Forced Labour", much more can be done.
In the United States for example, the Fair Food Program brings together major retailers and fast food chains such as Walmart, Subway and McDonalds, with growers and farmworkers - to ensure fair working conditions, alongside ethical choice for consumers. The Fair Good program is backed up by on the ground monitoring of labour conditions undertaken by farmworkers themselves.
Not all businesses will be proactive on this issue - some preferring to hide behind wilful blindness. In this regard, Governments have a key role to play.
Laws that require companies to undertake due diligence on working conditions in their supply chains, such as those put in place in the UK through the Modern Slavery Act, are a key first step. To be meaningful, due diligence requirements must be enforced.
Consumers do not want to be inadvertently eating food picked or packed by people who have been exploited, deceived or abused. We need our government and supermarkets to create an environment where it is impossible for anyone to sell food produced under these conditions.