Spotlight on security guards and labour hire

Victoria's Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner Steve Dargavel, Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth and Domus 8.7 Lived Experience Advisor Moe Turaga

Moe Turaga is Lived Experience Advisor for Domus 8.7, the modern slavery remediation service for members of the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network. In Moe’s opinion, the collapse of MA Services is a wake-up call for organisations outsourcing security through labour hire services.

As someone who has experienced forced labour in Australia, the allegations against the collapsed security contractor MA Services Group come as no surprise. 

The security industry has long been rife with the most extreme forms of labour exploitation. The security workforce is filled with vulnerable visa workers employed as casuals or in sham-contracting arrangements. 

The Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network (ACAN) flagged security and cleaning as high-risk industries for forced labour in our first assessment of modern slavery risk in the operations of Catholic organisations in 2019. 

The ACAN Program provides each Catholic member organisation with the tools to conduct due diligence of service providers before entering into contractual arrangements. The remediation agency for ACAN, Domus 8.7, also provides rapid response to any concerns of workers at risk.

Media coverage of security guards working for the MA Services group included many indicators of forced labour - threats to have their visas cancelled, intimidation, excessive overtime, and withholding of wages.

The Victorian Labour Hire Authority has cancelled the company’s labour hire licence, and the Fair Work Ombudsman is participating in a joint investigation.

My personal experience of forced labour was in horticulture, but I have also worked in security, so the MA Services revelations hit close to home. 

To me, there are important questions that no one seems to be asking.

• Could these security guards leave their jobs without fear of retribution? 

• Did any of them pay recruitment fees to come to Australia?

• Were their identity documents withheld?

• Where are they now?

• Who is looking after the welfare of the MA security guards? 

Also, why aren’t authorities assessing them as potential victims of forced labour under Australia’s modern slavery laws? 

Security guards shoulder an enormous amount of responsibility in our communities. The MA guards interviewed by the 60 Minutes program said they were having trouble putting food on the table, their pay was so illegally low. They deserve so much better.

It’s not just security either, these problems are endemic in labour hire.

Yesterday I attended the launch of the Fair Work Ombudsman’s new Guide to Labour Hire and Supply Chains.

Statistics shared by the Ombudsman, Anna Booth at the event were damning.

360 FWO site inspections in Victoria’s Yarra Valley horticultural region resulted in 512 investigations. 100% of labour hire providers audited were found to be in breach of Australian workplace laws.

This is the standard we continue to walk past.

I speak regularly to Catholic and corporate audiences about the risk of forced labour. Security and labour hire are always flagged as high-risk.

All organisations are responsible for workers on their sites. We all have a legal and ethical duty of care. The dignity of the human person is the foundational principle of Catholic Social Teaching.

With the tools and resources available to them, Catholic organisations have greater capacity than any regulator to verify the conditions of workers on our sites.

Everyone can play a part too. Next time you’re at work, and you walk past a security guard or a cleaner you don’t know, introduce yourself.  

A welcoming workplace is a safer workplace.

Read the Victorian Labour Hire Authority media statement about MA Services Group
Read the Fair Work/LHA joint release about horticulture and labour hire workplace breaches in Yarra Valley