"I felt so bad because I left a well-paid job and lost all my entitlements from 14 years. "I really felt I was let down. They should have honoured the contract and at least paid some compensation for my loss." When Mr Kunjil, now aged 47, returned to PNG, it took him nearly two years to find another job. He is among up to 80 workers from PNG who accepted the $120,000 per annum contract for three years of full-time employment with national labour hire company CoreStaff NT Pty Ltd. CoreStaff is a subsidiary of CGH Group, which touts itself as "one of Australia's leading providers of outsourced recruitment and human resources". Sydney law firm Levitt Robinson Solicitors has launched a class action in the Federal Court of Australia on behalf of the workers. Mr Kunjil is among 25 PNG miners who have signed up for the action. The workers said they were on-hired to a number of Australian mining companies in WA, including BHP and WesTrac.

The workers allege they were paid rates well below those offered in their CoreStaff contract and say they were forced to work up to 88 hours a week instead of the 38 hours specified in their contracts. Mr Kunjil alleges his earnings fell short of the $120,000 per annum guaranteed in his contract. A PAYG summary shows he earned $11,235 in gross payments from CoreStaff NT Pty Ltd between 13 August 2012 and 30 June 2013. According to the Statement of Claim lodged in the Federal Court, Mr Kunjil signed a contract dated 4 April, 2012, which offered him a three-year full-time employment contract as a fitter with CoreStaff NT Pty Ltd in Australia. The contract stated CoreStaff had an on-hire industry labour agreement approved by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. It said Mr Kunjil would work on a mine site in Western Australia and that his work location might change during the term of his employment. The contract said the base rate of pay would be $120,000 AUD per annum plus 9 per cent superannuation for 38 ordinary hours of work a week.

A Statement of Claim for another worker Alois Jack who signed a similar contract says he was required to work on a two-weeks-on-one-week-off basis, alternating between one week of night shifts and one week of day shifts. The statement alleges he worked 84 hours per week (12 hours per day) for a flat hourly rate of $45 per hour. A Department of Immigration audit of Corestaff NT Pty Ltd, launched on 28 August, 2012, failed to ask for any payslips to the workers and later cleared the company of any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman from the Australian Border Force said Corestaff NT Pty Ltd was subject to an enquiry which was finalised by the Sponsor Monitoring Unit in February 2013. "Employer sanctions education was provided, as is standard practice to many visa sponsors in Australia, no formal sanctions resulted from the enquiry," she said. The Herald sought comment from CoreStaff but it legal representative said "as a result of the claim being currently before the Federal Court, we are not in a position to comment". Comment was also sought from BHP and WesTrac.

BHP has a code of conduct which says it expects suppliers "to apply our human rights related zero tolerance requirements in relation to child labour, inhumane treatment of employees, forced or compulsory labour, non-discrimination and diversity, freedom of association, living wage, workplace health and safety and community interaction". In its Defence filed with the Federal Court, CoreStaff NT Pty Ltd says that any offer of employment to a successful candidate was "conditional" on continuing work offered by its clients. The Defence states that CoreStaff could not guarantee the continuing availability of work. "If there was no longer work available, then the job would no longer exist," the Defence says. Sydney immigration lawyer Adrian Joel who located the workers in PNG said it did not appear there was "any effect of regulation to protect workers brought to Australia under labour hire arrangements". Federal Labor this week pledged to overhaul the visa system for temporary workers if it wins government in May by increasing the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) from $53,900 to $65,000, with annual indexing.

Labor said it will also look to close loopholes that allow employers to artificially inflate salaries in order to meet the TSMIT – "such as providing substandard accommodation and inflated or excessive overtime hours". It says it will examine how best to close loopholes that allow some temporary visa workers to be paid less than awards or enterprise agreements. Labor said it will also extend the Fair Work Ombudsman’s regulatory powers to the inspection of workplaces and investigation of employer breaches of Migration Act provisions relating to visa work conditions. It also said it would legislate to establish an independent Australian Skills Authority (ASA) to restrict temporary work visas to jobs where there is a genuine skills shortage.