ACTU open to supporting default union membership for skilled migrants

Australia’s peak union body is open to supporting a radical plan which would see skilled migrants given default union membership as part of their employment conditions.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said an opt-out union membership system for foreign workers should “absolutely” be discussed at the Albanese government’s jobs and skills summit next month.

“We think that’s a very constructive proposal that should be further discussed,” Ms O’Neil said on Tuesday.

The ACTU’s support for Labor’s tentative plan to increase Australia’s permanent migration program to 200,000 places is conditional on a swag of economic reforms, including improving working conditions for migrants.

In the second of a series of policy papers to be released ahead of the jobs summit, the ACTU calls for an overhaul of Australia’s migration system to stamp out exploitation and provide clear pathways to permanency.

“What this report is saying is that if we’re going to stop exploitation of migrant workers, we’ve got to firstly make sure that they know their rights and the best way to know and have access to your rights is to be a member of a union,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Secondly, we want to make sure that the visas are no longer tied to individual employers.

“What this report says is that we should have sponsorship of migrant workers by industry, not by individual employers because an employer controlling your paycheck as well as your passport is a recipe for exploitation.”

The Australian Workers’ Union has backed having a system whereby foreign workers are given default membership of a relevant union which they can then opt-out of.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton will take the proposal to the jobs summit, which will bring together about 100 representatives from business groups, the public sector and the union movement.

“I’m hopeful; I’m yet to see anyone present any evidence as to why that would be a bad outcome for the economy or for those workers,” he said on Tuesday.

“The weight of evidence sits in our favour.

“With workers coming from overseas to work in our country, a large proportion of them unfortunately face exploitation.”

Mr Walton also wants the government to create a system in which businesses must match each migrant worker with the creation of a local training position, or make an increased contribution to a national training fund.

Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor said he hadn’t seen the AWU’s proposal but the government wasn’t ruling out anything at this stage.

“The one thing I will say, though, in relation to skilled migration, is we need to make sure that workers, whether they’re in the labour market now or coming in through the skilled (visa) pathway, are not exploited,” he said.

“So we certainly should be ensuring that all workers in this country are paid pursuant to the law, and most employers do the right thing.”