The past few weeks have been disconcerting. Carolina was trying to get another job and tried a few restaurants. She got some regular hours, but when it comes to fair conditions relating payment, we were both surprised how the owners react. They are unwilling to give payslips and to pay the required amount by law.

What pains us the most is that in both cases the owners were immigrants. We trusted they would have better empathy with newcomers. As we continued to look further into this, we found out how several businesses do this. Immigrants were paid sometimes $8 per hour (the minimum is $17.29 per hour).

Andrés twitted to the Fair Work Ombudsman and they responded with

@andresoventi if you or someone you know hasn’t been paid right, call us https://t.co/VzyK8y6S5u

— Fair Work Ombudsman (@fairwork_gov_au) February 16, 2016

So we ask to anyone who reads this post to report any payment or employment issues to Fair Work.

However, we think this is NOT enough. One thing that comes to mind is boycotting these businesses, so we created Boycott Work Exploitation, a resource that informs which restaurants are not following the employment law and abusing their workers. We encourage any and all people to report these abuses to our list. They will be handled anonymously.

As immigrants we should not be treated as less.