Systematic wage theft from taxpayer in the NSW cruise industry exposed

Maritime Union of Australia

The Maritime Union of Australia has today revealed that systematic wage theft from taxpayer funds occuring in and alongside the NSW Cruise industry at publicly owned passenger terminals could potentially be worth millions of dollars.

MUA Sydney Branch Organiser Shane Reside said “we believe that millions of dollars in wages have been systematically stolen by criminal security companies working under contract to the NSW State Government in the International Cruise Terminals of Sydney Harbour, including at Circular Quay and White Bay. The seedy underbelly of this industry is truly staggering.”

The government-owned NSW Port Authority is responsible for managing the security of the international passenger cruise terminals. The Port Authority has contracted out their responsibility for security to Singaporean state-owned multinational 'Certis'. 

“After receiving whistleblower reports almost 12 months ago, the MUA has been relentlessly digging through layer after layer of shady outsourced contractors performing security at the international passenger cruise terminals. Every layer is worse than the last, and right at the very bottom you have ordinary, working class people being robbed of their hard earned pay," Mr Reside said.

The MUA brought the Fair Work Ombudsman in to use their investigative powers to start forensically piecing together a case detailing exactly how much in wages had been stolen by these sub-contractors.

After 12 months of investigation, the Fair Work Ombudsman has confirmed that contracted security services at NSW cruise passenger terminals has been further outsourced or subcontracted out to five separate, shady operators. This authorised outsourcing is a blatant breach of the written contract Certis holds with the Port Authority. Of those five sub-contractors, three have been found to be stealing wages, one has gone into liquidation, and the final company is ghosting the Ombudsman and seemingly impossible to find.

“We all know that workers in the security industry in NSW are overwhelmingly drawn from migrant, working class communities. It is an absolute disgrace that these people are being robbed by criminal outfits employed under contract to the NSW State Government.” 

“Successive governments have outsourced critical infrastructure to multinational corporate interests right across our economy, so it's no surprise that a profit-hungry multinational has overseen a wage heist of this magnitude,” Reside said.

MUA Sydney Branch Secretary Paul Keating said “the question we should really be asking ourselves is what else is happening in the international passenger cruise terminals in Sydney Harbour? There is not one, not two, but five separate shady outfits that have been pulling people off the street, giving them a security uniform and sending them down to manage an international border arrival point”.

“If the Port Authority audits haven’t picked up wage theft of this magnitude from taxpayer funds, what else have they missed that’s going on down at these terminals? What are they going to do to stamp this out?” 

“For decades, the MUA has warned that state government outsourcing of security arrangements to private multinationals was a massive risk on every single front. Sadly the NSW Government pursued this risky and unprincipled approach in spite of all sound advice, and their approach has bitten them on the arse," Mr Keating said. 

"The MUA has uncovered multiple instances of criminal organisations running security at the international border in our international passenger terminals,” Keating explained. "Will Minns step in now and take action to make sure that this never happens again or is he and his government captive to the same multinational criminals who robbed these workers in the first place? I’m waiting for my phone to ring”.

ENDS.

For Comment: Paul Keating, MUA Sydney Branch Secretary

Ph: 0434 290 443

Background: Shane Reside, MUA Sydney Branch Organiser

Ph: 0400 526 313