Finally someone is talking about Indian worker exploitation…
Vicious cycle: Why are some Indian migrants so badly exploited in NZ?
Over two years, a growing number of young Indian men have come forward alleging exploitation by their employer. Why does this keep happening? National Correspondent Steve Kilgallon reports.
…the closure of the border is slowly strangling the exploitation of migrant workers and we have a moment to pause and reflect on this appalling profiteering of human desperation.
We must reflect on the manner in which the ‘education’ courses are a scam.
We must reflect on the manner in which these workers are exploited and drive down wages for domestic NZers.
We must reflect on how the exploitation goes well beyond just Indian bottle shops and deep into our primary industry and throughout our service industry.
We must look at solutions that fundamentally end this exploitation like a Migrant Worker Amnesty and Universal Union Membership for all migrant workers.
Migrant Worker Amnesty:
We can’t entice migrant workers here, have them exploited by unscrupulous bosses and then tell them to piss off back home. That is cruel and nasty. We should offer an immediate amnesty to all migrant workers in NZ to become permanent residents BUT right after that amnesty, we must close all immigration until a vaccine is widely available. Employers will need to use the existing work force here if they want to expand, this would end the bullshit games of companies claiming no NZer wants to be a burger king manager or booze seller so we need to import those workers. You either pay proper wages to attract someone to your job or you don’t get an employee. Those migrant workers who left NZ as the borders closed however are not due any special protection or aid, they are simply the unlucky and a Government isn’t responsible for unlucky foreign workers.
Universal Union Membership for all migrant workers:
The ease with which exploitation of migrant workers is so rampant throughout NZ demands a response that is serious and only compulsory Union membership of all migrant workers will force the exploitation to end.
There are enormous structural changes coming our way in a post pandemic world and we need to see ourselves as one of the life boats on a climate crisis planet. Immigration is an area we need to urgently reform so that when external shocks occur, we are flexible enough to sustain them.
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A lot of the expoloiters are new migrants themselves. Have yet to see any ‘lefties’ advocating that the migrants employers who exploit workers in NZ, lose their NZ residency and citizenship and actually make exploitation a crime punishable by deportation back to country of origin.
Likewise the ponzi ‘labour hire’ companies making a killing bringing labour into NZ, and all their dependants to have free health care, education, etc What is not being said, is how they then can’t get the foreign labour and dependants back to the country of origin when things go wrong… which in 90% of the ponzi cases and even the so called legitimate worker cases, it does!
When jobs are essentially transient in NZ, and workers are a commodity to be interchanged at any time with no redundancy needed to be paid, then funny enough, whether a Kiwi, born and bred, or a foreigner from China, India, Pacific, UK, etc, they all can lose their jobs and be left penniless, just like the Kiwis.
This is not migrant exploitation, this is NZ exploitation labour laws for everyone!
Instead the woke seem to advocate wringing hands, and wanting more and more foreign migrants to come to NZ on mostly low wage jobs or sunset/exploitative business opportunities like Liquor shops and cafe’s that are creating John n Bill’s dream (and now the lefties) of NZ being a low wage economy.
Wages in NZ are now lower than benefits, and the working poor in NZ are living in cars and need food parcels! The middle class is diminishing. Wasn’t happening 20 years ago, when having a job paid enough to get ahead in NZ, while 50 years ago people could thrive on one wage!
Lefties are too busy worrying about woke micro issues, to look at the bigger picture. Unions have lost and in many cases or become collaborators and brainwashed with big business and globalism issues, themselves.
The losers are the workers, growing gig economy workers and the better employers who are constantly being undercut by exploited and cash labour, now rampant in NZ.
The NZ taxpayers also need to pay the foreign workers and their dependants quarantine and Covid costs. Nearly half the people who come into NZ on work permits also bring in the equivalent of themselves as non earning dependants as well!
Seem to remember reading about a 80yo women arriving from India who has Covid…. but somehow is able to travel between India and NZ with the Kiwis paying for her quarantine costs and health costs no doubt once she is in NZ….
Fully agree with what you say . There should be a good citizen clause for all those want to live and prosper here. We only want the best to make their home here and now this country is going to be a virtually virus free haven we hold a trump card to attract them
A fulltime job (30 hours/week), even at minimum wage, pays more after tax than any benefit.
If convicted of migrant exploitation within 10 years of being granted residency, deportation liability is automatic.
Deportation is to any country a person has the right of entry to (usually citizenship) – that’s not always the country of origin.
Not necessarily Craig H, I know someone with 3 kids on DPB and gets $1000 p/w – there is accomodation top ups… and additional funds per child… not even adding in the winter payments etc
You can have your ex partner stay 2 nights out of 7 apparently to still qualify as DPB.
If you have big family you can be better off on benefits than working – WFF is supposed to cover the short fall but there is a lot of mucking around – not everyone is an accountant and with gig economy work can be hard to keep up with WFF payments, and then deduct costs of working such as transport which in Auckland can easily cost nearly $100 p/w….. you don’t qualify for winter power payments etc on wages and then stand down periods when you lose your job/hours…
Clearly you are unable to identify who is a “lefty” and who isn’t
..but not Indian employer exploitation… the biggest losers in this game are the No Zealand poor… competing with migrant colonists for accommodation and wages… this is some right-wing neo-colonial bullshit, Bomber…
Indian security guards, paid the minimum wage, are they vetted properly and how can you do proper vetting when they come from a country with corrupt and questionable practices. More vulnerable to taking bribes when on low pay and working long hours. And who is responsible for letting so many into our country. Did they backdoor it through the education system under national for the nine years who were driving wages down therefore creating a false economy and interfering with the market namely supply and demand for low skilled workers
here’s an easy solution STOP LETTING THEM IN! Prosecute the liquor barons and others who are doing the exploitation with big huge fines. Oh and before you go what about the farmers who are they going to get to do all the dirty work and pick crops etc. How about pay NZers a living wage to do this work. Problem solved.
The biggest exploiter of the Indians was the national government who let them in via the education backdoor. I would like to know the number they let in between 2009 – 2017. I bet it is high and how many did they give residency to ?
The biggest exploiter of the Indians was the national government who let them in via the education backdoor. I would like to know the number they let in between 2009 – 2017. I bet it is high and how many did they give residency to ?
We all know that 2 Chinese are more valuable than 2 Indians according to the Natz…
Fully agree with what you say . There should be a good citizen clause for all those want to live and prosper here. We only want the best to make their home here and now this country is going to be a virtually virus free haven we hold a trump card to attract them
For a number of years Migrant Workers Association has been asking for the practice of attaching visas to be stopped.
We have also been asking for amnesty or a pathway to residence for temporary migrants already in New Zealand.
Started under last National party government and just as bad under the current Labour led coalition government.
NZ’s population was not supposed to reach 5million until 2030. it is perfectly clear what has happened to NZ. Our labour laws and education rorts are legendary. All exploitative employers should have their citizenship revoked and be deported no questions asked and be asset stripped as well,yes pay the quarantine costs of these migrants in limbo but don’t hesitate to deport them either. No more dependents and no more Super for those who have not paid tax here for a minimum of 20 years. No health free healthcare for dependents. No aging family members at all if they have not paid tax here they should have to pay, if they have health problems they have to pay. And no citizenship for aging relatives.All children born to non citizens should not have the right to citizenship, we are being royally fucked over.
This was almost actively encouraged all of the John Key govt’s tenure.
Remember Bill English so proud of our low wage economy? This is one of the ways it was achieved.
On the RSE – I like the scheme, but it needs to be run by people other than the rort merchants who have been. For me, it is a win, win for us and the countries where these workers come from. They are able to be mobile and follow the work, not having to worry about kids’ schooling, tenancies etc, but it MUST be overseen far, far better than it has been, as it has been another means of exploitation and it’s a bit of an indictment on us that we have let that continue.
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