Australia's workplace rights watchdog will be given wider powers to investigate visa rorts, as the Gillard government continues its tough talking on ''rogue employers'' exploiting the section-457 foreign worker program.
But federal ministers are tight-lipped on the prospect of earmarking extra money for enforcement in the upcoming budget.
Although the Fair Work Ombudsman already has a role in helping foreign workers who are underpaid, the body's 300 inspectors are to be given greater powers.
Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor said the government would change the law to allow Fair Work inspectors to investigate employer sponsoring arrangements.
They would monitor that 457 visa holders were being paid at the market rates specified in their approved visa and the job being performed matches the approved title and description.
Mr O'Connor said the Department of Immigration and Citizenship had 34 inspectors but Fair Work had more than 300, so the combination of forces would provide greater oversight of the 457 visa scheme.
''My concern has been all along that we do not want to see 457 applicants exploited,'' he said.
Fair Work recently provided figures to Fairfax Media showing it finalised 157 complaints from section-457 visa workers in the 2011-12 financial year and recovered in $207,871 in back-pay.
But a government statement said that Fair Work was not currently empowered to undertake checks for compliance with specific visa conditions such as the payment of market rates.
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said Fair Work inspectors visited 10,000 workplaces a year and would soon play a greater role in ensuring visa holders were not exploited.
He said the expansion of powers would tackle a ''gap in the system''.
''You wouldn't have cars driving up and down the road and two different sets of traffic police trying to pull over the same cars and have different laws,'' Mr Shorten said.
Mr O'Connor said the government was looking to absorb as much of the cost as possible but this would be dealt with ''in the normal process of doing the budget''.
''We'll determine that through the budget process,'' he said of the extra cost.
The latest announcement follows a sustained campaign by the Gillard government in recent weeks targeting the 457 visa program, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard vowing to ensure Australian workers were at the front of the queue.
The government promised a crackdown on rorting of the scheme that allows employers to use foreign labour to plug skills gaps, but the opposition and business groups accused her of lacking evidence of widespread abuse and demonising foreigners.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said employers who abused the 457 visa system were in the minority and should face the appropriate penalty.
Mr Willox said the announced expansion of the Fair Work Ombudsman's powers, if made in isolation, would appear reasonable.
"However, we need to tread warily given the politicisation of this issue in recent weeks," he said.
"We remain concerned that the series of announcements around 457 visas, combined with offensive and repeated references by unions to the system being akin to slavery, is unfairly demonising employers and vilifying 457 visa holders."
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