The Senate Inquiry into Evasion of the Fair Work Act was announced in September last year. 

Submissions to the inquiry include Ballarat Trades Hall, whose secretary Brett Edgington said a black economy – where workers are paid cash-in-hand – was flourishing in Ballarat.

Workers paid as little as $5 an hour have come to Trades Hall for advice, and the Young Workers’ Legal Centre last year mounted a case in the Federal Court for underpayment of a young chef which amounted to $27,000 in unpaid wages, Mr Edgington said.

Some of Ballarat’s biggest employers, as well as Commerce Ballarat, will also make representations to the inquiry. The inquiry has already sat in Canberra and Collie, in Western Australia, and will sit in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Mr Edgington, who has been instrumental in bringing the inquiry to Ballarat, will tell the inquiry the “tyranny of distance” is denying regional workers the basic award safety net, with over 30 Ballarat businesses known to Trades Hall for underpaying their workers. 

The list is informed by employees who have come to Trades Hall for advice or legal representation.

The Trades Hall Submission also includes the claim a large hospitality business, which will be named during the inquiry under parliamentary privilege, pays more than half its workers “off the books” for $10 to $15 an hour.

The inquiry will also hear representations from McCain Foods and the Australian Manufacturing Worker’ Union. The submissions follow three months of stop work action last year in which over 300 McCain employees took part.

A number of submissions dispute claims made by the unions.

A submission by truck trailer manufacturer MaxiTRANS disputes the union’s claim the company hires workers on visas, including the temporary skilled workers 457 visa, from China and the Philippines.

In its submission, MaxiTRANS said the company had not had workers on 457 visas for 10 years and had a “long and proud” history training apprentices in Ballarat.

However a submission to the federal government’s 2014 independent review of the 457 visa program by MaxiTRANS reveals the company recruited “in excess” of 10 welders/spraypainters from China and the Philippines to its Ballarat factory on the 119 Regional Sponsored Migration Visa since late 2012.

The inquiry will sit at the Mercure Ballarat from 8.45am to 3.40pm on Tuesday, March 14.