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Businesses forced to choose between migrant workers and locals
Australian hospitality businesses are facing a dilemma as they are forced to choose between local workers or migrant workers on visas.
The coronavirus lockdown has seen many venues and hotels temporarily stand down staff after demand plummeted.
But under the current federal government stimulus packages, only local workers can access government benefits, while migrant workers face a future where they cannot receive any support but are unable to return home.
If TGI Fridays favours local staff over its migrant workforce under the current regulations, it is set to save more than $1.1 million in wages over the next six months, thanks to the government's $1500 a fortnight JobKeeper payment.
James Sinclair, the boss of TGI Fridays in Australia, is asking the government to widen its new JobKeeper payments to include migrant workers.
"These are hardworking, outstanding family people," Sinclair told the Brisbane Times. "They are rightly fearful about their future, they paid tax here, and they can’t leave."
The Restaurant and Catering Association is also lobbying the government to change the JobKeeper payment to help migrant workers.
"Many can’t return home and are now stranded here with practically nothing, they still have rents to pay and they need to survive," said Restaurant and Catering Association chief executive Wes Lambert.
A Unions NSW survey of 3700 migrant workers showed half have lost their jobs because of coronavirus with less than 2 per cent accessing help from either charities or the government.
"The federal government must urgently expand both the JobSeeker and JobKeeper programs to temporary migrants, many of whom are already slipping into poverty and have limited healthcare, if any at all," Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey told the Brisbane Times. "Putting hundreds of thousands of people on the breadline is deeply immoral at the best of times."
Sheridan Randall, 2nd April 2020
