...

On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a two-year pilot of innovative visa reforms that could bring these workers out of the shadows.

A new short-term "workplace justice visa" will allow migrant workers to stay and work in Australia for six months while they pursue a labour claim.

There will also be new visa protections for migrants who want to take action against their employers, but might otherwise have stayed silent because they had breached their visa conditions.

These reforms may go much further than recovering entitlements for individual workers...

Many migrant workers fear that speaking out will jeopardise their current or future visas. And when they reach the end of their stay - and could potentially pursue a labour claim without risking their job or visa - they must swiftly return home...

The Department of Home Affairs is now also prohibited from cancelling the visas of some migrants who have breached their work conditions, as long as they've obtained a similar labour claim certification...

By permitting workers to obtain certification from trusted third parties, the pilot visa program provides choice and agency in how they assert their labour rights. This is without precedent anywhere else in the world.

Unlike a scheme which depends on government certification of claims alone, this pilot encourages migrants to join unions and equips unions with a new tool to organise and represent them.

Not only will this embolden exploited workers to come forward, it will also expand the universe of labour law enforcement beyond the Fair Work Ombudsman to union and community lawyers...