State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, has raised further evidence that workers are being exploited by unscrupulous employers during a speech to the NSW Parliament.
Yesterday, Ms Hornery spoke about the workers who had allegedly been underpaid more than $22,000 from a business in Fletcher.
Ms Hornery reached out to her constituents late last week to find out if any of them had ever been the victim of unscrupulous employers and exploitative employment practices and the response was immediate and overwhelming.
Quotes attributable to Member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery
“The stories of workers being exploited have been coming in thick and fast to my office.”
“A young woman named Adelaide told me about the unfair treatment she experienced at a small business in the Wallsend electorate. She was underpaid and not paid overtime. They refused to let her have breaks and then her contract was broken and she was let go without the correct warning or payment.”
“Jonathon, a young man who lives in my electorate, missed out on getting paid for an entire shift because the employee time clock wasn’t working. He had been working a regular shift for a while, and was told that because it was his permanent shift he would be paid regardless. But he wasn’t and he was left short by $200 for that shift.”
“Perhaps the most shocking of all the stories was Amber, who told me about her daughter who was employed in a business which took on a number of new staff, mostly new arrivals to Australia and very young women. She was told they all had to complete two weeks training and were initially told it would be paid, but then they were told after they’d completed the training that it was unpaid. This employer had them perform the full duties of the job during these two weeks. Finally, they were signed to a contract which paid below minimum wage. Her daughter was bullied, threatened with firing, yelled at and had her hours cut back whenever she tried to assert her rights.”
“At one stage, Amber said her daughter had accumulated over eighty hours of unpaid work—and only got some money out of this unscrupulous employer after fighting tooth and nail for her rights.”
“Instead of support from Government for workers, there has been an all-out assault on the wages and conditions of many low-paid workers all over NSW and nationally. Attacks on penalty rates, the failure to appropriately monitor workplaces and police the actions of employers means that people are finding it harder and harder to get ahead.”
“I am going to fight to make sure that every worker in the Wallsend electorate is treated fairly by their employer.”
“The exploitation of workers has got to stop.”