New employment service for migrants and vulnerable workers

 

Have you been underpaid? Are you being unfairly treated by your boss? Do you want to know more about your rights at work? The Employment Rights Legal Service is a new free legal service for migrants and vulnerable workers in NSW.

The Employment Rights Legal Service (ERLS) provides free and confidential legal help to migrants and other vulnerable workers across NSW. This free statewide service is a partnership between Kingsford Legal Centre, Inner City Legal Centre and Redfern Legal Centre.

The Employment Rights Legal Service can help you with problems including:

  • Not being paid the right amount
  • Losing your job unfairly
  • Being bullied by your boss
  • Being sexually harassed
  • Being discriminated against

Contact

For legal help: call 02 8004 3270 or fill out an online form
Email: coordinator@erls.org.au
For a free telephone interpreter: call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450, and ask them to call us on 02 8004 3270.

Brochures in multiple languages

English | عربى | Assyrian  | မြန်မာ  | 中国人 | Dari | Ελληνικά | हिंदी | bahasa Indonesia | Italian | 日本 | 한국어 | नेपाली  | português | ਪੰਜਾਬੀ  | русский | Español | Kiswahili | Tagalog | русский | ไทย | Türk | Tiếng Việt

Information for community legal centres

The Employment Rights Legal Service is focused on capacity building in the community legal sector to help meet the employment law needs of vulnerable workers in NSW. This could include running workshops or sharing resources, such as precedent court applications. If you think your community legal centre would be interested in working with the service to leverage and build upon your staff’s existing expertise, contact coordinator@erls.org.au. 

The Employment Rights Legal Service provides free legal help for migrants and vulnerable workers across NSW. The service will be particularly tailored towards people identified as a 'priority clients' in the National Legal Assistance Partnership Agreement, including: 

  • people who are culturally and linguistically diverse;
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
  • children and young people (up to 24 years)
  • older people (aged over 65 years or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 50 years);
  • people experiencing, or at risk of, family violence;
  • people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness;
  • people in custody and/or prisoners;
  • people residing in rural or remote areas;
  • people with a disability or mental illness;
  • people with low education levels;
  • single parents.

Client stories

A Brazilian man wearing a blue button-up shirt smiles at the camera.

A number of Brazilian cleaners came to us for advice about being underpaid at work by the same employer. This employer went insolvent, but a similar new entity had replaced the old. Almost all of these workers were on temporary visas and spoke little English.

They were being typically paid $17/hour instead of ~$28/hour.

We provided advice to over 20 such employees, and calculated that they had collectively been underpaid more than $200,000. We helped them recover a sizeable chunk of this by drafting requests for assistance for the Fair Work Ombudsman, letters of demand to the new employing entity, and proofs of debt to the liquidator of the old.

A woman in her thirties looks at her phone. She is sitting on a couch indoors with a young child.

Emma worked as a Child Care Director at a childcare centre for almost 20 years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her hours were reduced significantly and Emma was forced to resign. Emma was employed under the Children’s Services Award 2010. Emma’s employer withheld her long service leave pay, and underpaid her termination payment. When Emma complained about this, her former employer threatened her with defamation action.

We advised Emma how much she was owed and helped her communicate with her former employer about her legal entitlements. She was able to leave her long-term workplace peacefully and was paid her correct termination entitlements.