“Supermarket giant acts on ‘appalling’ worker conditions”

Migrant workers who have lost limbs or been blinded in Australian workplaces fear they will be deported if they seek medical treatment, an inquiry into modern slavery has been told.

Workers under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme were particularly vulnerable due to their strict visa conditions, which stop them from changing employers, lawyer Joshua Strutt said…

The PALM scheme allows eligible Australian businesses to hire people from Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste, usually to work in agriculture and meat processing…

Supermarket giant Woolworths took on a labour hire company after being told migrant workers in its Queensland supply chain were living in poor conditions.

“We did a site inspection and the housing conditions were indeed appalling and unliveable,” Woolworths human rights general manager Rachel Elliott said.

“The workers had raised this with the labour hire provider to no avail.”…

After audits in NSW in the past two years, Woolworths has worked with suppliers to repay $50,000 in the meat industry and $48,000 in horticulture…

Overcrowded accommodation was another pressing issue, with regular reports of 10 people living in one house and paying $170 per bed…