What I’m seeing down here in NZ/Australia are repeated anecdotal cases of restaurants being charged with abusing immigrant(mostly legal and some illegal oversta

What I’m seeing down here in NZ/Australia are repeated anecdotal cases of restaurants being charged with abusing immigrant(mostly legal and some illegal overstayer) employees. The abuse typically involves underpayment in the form of fixed income and unlimited hours, or required overtime without additional pay as per employment law. More recently, I’ve become aware of two major fast food franchises with a cheap labour scam so common it must be known or knowingly ignored by the franchisors(1 in Aus, 1 in NZ). It is a scheme where immigrants are sponsored for work visas in entry level exempt fast food management jobs working unlimited hours for $60k salary a year. The problem is the immigrants pay back $60k thru seperate channels for the opportunity, effectively becoming indentured servants for 1 year. That is so incredibly unethical and immoral, if not illegal(unsure about that, but questionable quasi-legal at best). I can understand, if not sympathize, with how and why this has come about. Looking in from the outside, the fast food and quick casual restaurant industry is ruthlessly competitive and cannibalistic. Restaurant owners/franchisees and franchisors would be well aware of such financial subsidy benefitting directly(franchisee bottom line) & indirectly(franchisor P&L leverage to push for higher reinvestment/co-marketing). Just because immigrants are willing/able to agree to a fixed term indentured servitude, doesn’t make it ok. I’m a legal immigrant myself and I have a legal immigrant starting his first day tomorrow(after a 6 month search). We only had the opportunity to employ him after he was poorly treated(due to leveraging him with implied threats with his work visa) here in NZ and after he was poorly treated in Qatar and Bahrain previously.