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Foreign household workers or au pairs /ˌoʊ ˈpers / in Australia are receiving unfair treatment from host families.
Au pairs are usually young workers who perform domestic work in Australia. Their main tasks involve minor housework and childcare duties in exchange for lodging and allowance.
Because many Australian parents do not have flexible working hours and are in need of affordable childcare, most families have started relying on au pair services. In fact, the demand for au pairs in Australia has increased over a span of five years. Currently, there are at least 10,000 au pairs in the country.
However, host families can easily exploit these young foreign workers due to a lack of government regulation over the au pair industry. A report published by the University of Technology Sydney and Macquarie [muh–KWAWR-ee] University stated that a majority of au pairs were required to do tasks beyond their usual duties and did not receive compensation for additional work.
The report also discovered that 58% of au pairs are working below Australia’s weekly minimum wage of 719.20 Australian dollars. Most of them received only 240 Australian dollars per week for working 35 hours.
To protect au pairs from exploitation, the Cultural Au Pair Association of Australia (CAPAA) proposed some action plans. One of these is to push for a visa that specifically caters to au pairs so that their rights and working conditions will be clearly stated. Another is reputable agencies’ implementation of a process that screens au pairs and matches them to host families to protect the interest of both parties. In addition, the CAPAA advocates for compulsory insurance coverage for au pairs.