How To Prevent Forced Labour

Preventing forced labour means removing the levers that let one party control another’s work. In an Australian workplace those levers are usually immigration status, debt and control of somewhere to live. Spotting warning signs matters, but prevention is a design question, and it is mostly settled before anyone thinks to look.

Migration law is the sharpest of the three. Since 1 July 2024 the Migration Act 1958, as amended by the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Act 2024, targets employers, labour hire intermediaries and others in the employment chain who use a person’s immigration status to exploit them. A business that seriously, deliberately or repeatedly breaches those laws can be given a prohibition declaration and lose the ability to employ migrant workers for a set period.

Steps that take the leverage away:

• Check visa conditions yourself through Visa Entitlement Verification Online rather than taking a labour hire intermediary’s word for it.
• Look at the register of sanctioned sponsors before you engage anyone to supply labour.
• Advertise roles and terms directly to candidates, so nobody in the middle can misdescribe the job.
• Make the checks steps in your onboarding workflow rather than someone’s good intentions.
• Never let deductions for accommodation, transport or recruitment costs leave a worker in debt to you.

None of this is legal advice, and obligations differ across states and territories and change over time. The Australian Border Force’s guidance on employer prohibition sets out the current position on migrant worker exploitation.

Sentrient’s modern slavery course covers forced labour for staff who hire, supervise or buy, and sits alongside the wider compliance training courses.