{"id":11404,"date":"2021-05-14T03:51:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=11404"},"modified":"2021-05-14T03:51:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T03:51:09","slug":"labor-will-criminalise-wage-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/05\/14\/labor-will-criminalise-wage-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor Will Criminalise Wage Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Albanese Labor Government will protect Australian workers from exploitation and rip-offs by criminalising wage theft.<br \/>\nWage theft\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alp.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=942ebc4c1cf8fc522a4f4c50e&amp;id=4e007cd139&amp;e=a709c12679\">costs workers an estimated $1.35 billion every year.<\/a><br \/>\nIt happens across industries \u2013 from construction to health care, from retail to accommodation \u2013 and disproportionately affects vulnerable workers like women, young people and migrants.<br \/>\nAcross Australia a worker who steals from the till is committing a crime &#8211; but in most states and territories an employer who steals their workers\u2019 wages is not. This is completely unfair.<br \/>\nFor some employers, wage theft has become part of their business model. It\u2019s well past time we end this epidemic.<br \/>\nA Labor Government will consult with states and territories, unions and employers to develop laws that criminalise wage theft nationwide.<br \/>\nLabor\u2019s laws will not water down any wage theft laws already passed by the states.<br \/>\nThe Labor governments in Victoria and Queensland moved to criminalise wage theft last year because Scott Morrison has refused to act. But Australia needs a national wage theft system to end the rip-offs.<br \/>\nThe\u00a0Liberals and Nationals\u00a0have been in government for eight long years. There have been dozens of high profile wage theft scandals under their watch with tens of thousands of workers ripped off.<br \/>\nMr\u00a0Morrison had to be dragged kicking and screaming into even acknowledging there was a problem. Two years ago he finally announced he\u2019d do something about it &#8211; but as usual he hasn\u2019t delivered.<br \/>\nLabor voted in the Senate\u00a0in March\u00a0to pass national wage theft laws.<br \/>\nWith Labor and the Senate crossbench on board, the Government had the numbers to easily pass the wage theft laws through Parliament.\u00a0Instead it threw a tantrum and tore up its own\u00a0laws because it couldn\u2019t also get support for its plans to cut workers\u2019 pay and conditions.<br \/>\nMr Morrison decided to send a clear signal to wage thieves: keep it up.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s clear now the only way Australia will get national wage theft laws to protect workers is by electing an Albanese Labor Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Albanese Labor Government will protect Australian workers from exploitation and rip-offs by criminalising wage theft. Wage theft\u00a0costs workers an estimated $1.35 billion every year. It happens across industries \u2013 from construction to health care, from retail to accommodation \u2013 and disproportionately affects vulnerable workers like women, young people and migrants. Across Australia a worker &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/05\/14\/labor-will-criminalise-wage-theft\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Labor Will Criminalise Wage Theft&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}