Professor Marilyn Pittard

Professor Marilyn Pittard
(Monash University)

Avoiding Abuses? The Introduction of Guest Workers Concept and its Recent Operation in Australia

Abstract:

Emerging cases have indicated that labour, which is coming from overseas under Australia’s expanded temporary skilled migrant visas permitting ‘guest workers’, may be subjected to sub-standard working conditions by employers and exploitation by agencies which promote their employment.

The paper will examine the Australian concept of guest workers, identifying its similarities with the European concept; the aim of the programme; and how it is working in Australia. It will assess the extent to which the workers in the programme are subject to abuse by agencies and employers; and critically examine what steps are being taken, and/or should be put in place, in order to prevent the abuse.

Biographical note:

Marilyn Pittard is professor and until recently Associate Dean (Postgraduate Studies) at the Faculty of Law, Monash University. Her teaching fields include undergraduate and postgraduate labour and employment law, administrative law and public sector employment law. Professor Pittard has published extensively in all aspects of labour and employment law, co-authoring Australian Labour Law: Cases and Materials (LexisNexis, 4th edition, 2003 - and several previous editions) and Industrial Relations in Australia: Development, Law and Operation (Longman, 1995). Her book Public Sector Employment in the Twenty-First Century, co-authored with Prof Phillipa Weeks, is in press. She undertakes grant-funded research in employment and industrial relations law.
A founding member of the Australian Labour Law Association (‘ALLA’), she has served on its executive committee since its inception, and co-convenes ALLA’s Victorian Chapter. For many years, she served on the Executive Committee of the Industrial Relations Society of Victoria. She was on the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s workplace surveillance reference advisory board, and is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria’s Workplace Advisory Group and the ethics research committee of the Cancer Council of Victoria. She is workplace relations law consultant to a national law firm. Professor Pittard is a founding member of the Australian Journal of Labour Law editorial board (and recent legislation section editor for 17 years); editor of the Employment Law Bulletin; and faculty adviser to the Monash University Law Review.

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