SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, February 26, 2001: Indian workers at a Hindu temple in Helensburgh, south of Sydney, have been taken away from the site, where it is alleged they are being paid $45 (US$23.60) a month for their labor. The men are stone masons from the Indian province of Tamil Nadu, working in Australia on temporary visas, who are building pagodas at Helensburgh’s Sri Venkateshwara Temple. Unions say Australians doing the same work could expect to be paid $500 to $1,000 (US$262.00 to US$524.00) a week. State Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Andrew Ferguson, says the conditions on the site are the worst he has seen. The Indian workers have now left the site and will be accommodated in Wollongong overnight. Temple management is refusing to comment on the matter subject to legal advice.
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