ALP urged to jail bosses for ‘wage theft’
The Australian 12:00am May 16, 2017
Ewin Hannan
National union leader and former ALP vice-president Tony Sheldon has called for the Labor Party to make executives of companies engaged in “wage theft” subject to criminal prosecution and potential jail terms.
Mr Sheldon said companies including 7-Eleven, Caltex and Domino’s would be held accountable if underpayment of wages was made a criminal offence.
Mr Sheldon, the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, said Australia was “gripped by a new crime spree”.
“It’s not break and enter, it’s not drunken brawls ... it is the plague of billions of dollars in wages and superannuation which employers take from the pay packets of their employees,’’ he said.
“It is wage theft. And it needs to be treated like any other form of theft by making it an offence, with jail sentences.”
He said the TWU would push Labor to support changes to workplace laws “so that thieving bosses, and the equity funds and economic employers behind them, feel the same fear before the law that any other thief does’’.
“We are demanding governments of all political persuasions to stand up and hold the privileged to account,’’ Mr Sheldon said. “We will be seeking support at Labor Party conferences around the country to support making wage and superannuation theft a criminal offence, carrying a jail term.
“Malcolm Turnbull needs to be called out on his vow to make unions as accountable as employers. We support firm action against rogue elements in our ranks and businesses.
“Officials face jail terms under the Registered Organisations Act, therefore employers should also be held accountable with jail terms if they steal from the pay packets of their employees. That’s justice.”
Mr Sheldon said tightening margins across the economy had made wage and superannuation theft a business model.
“Our movement needs to stop being polite, and so do governments,’’ he said. “If an employee or contractor puts his hand in the till, he loses his job. But he also faces police, courts, criminal proceedings. But when a boss steals from a worker, guess what? It’s quaintly referred to as ‘underpayment’. And they reach a settlement with the Fair Work Ombudsman to repay the money.
“How is this a disincentive to steal from your workforce? This is actually an incentive to see what you can get away with. Worst comes to worst, you’ll simply be asked to pay back what you owe to those who complain and pocket the rest.”
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James declined to comment on Mr Sheldon’s policy proposal.
“When we initiate proceedings against an employer alleging that underpayments have occurred, we often request that the court make orders prohibiting the employer from engaging in further instances of underpayment,” a spokesman for the ombudsman said. “Any subsequent matters where the employer is found to have underpaid staff could potentially be a contempt of court, which is a criminal matter.”