Aged care provider fined $120k for illegally charging migrant workers
An NSW aged care company was sanctioned for unlawfully charging sponsored workers visa and sponsorship costs. The company must repay affected workers and faces a six-month ban on new sponsorships.
Official source ↗The Australian Border Force investigated a South Coast aged care provider after receiving a Border Watch report. The investigation found the company had sponsored 19 workers on Skills in Demand (Subclass 482) visas and unlawfully recovered sponsorship-related costs from 13 of them, totalling $118,197. Two workers had individually paid over $17,000 and $19,000 toward nomination and visa application fees. Australian migration law strictly prohibits approved work sponsors from recovering or shifting sponsorship costs onto visa holders—this protection exists to prevent worker exploitation. The company acknowledged the breaches in April and repaid all affected workers in full. As a consequence, the company is now banned from lodging new sponsor nomination applications for six months. Home Affairs has published information about sponsorship obligations and maintains a register of sanctioned sponsors on its website.