What is this Class Action about?

​The Stolen Wages class action proceedings claim that the Queensland “Protection Acts” in force between 1939 and 1972 required that the wages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers were to be paid to the protector or superintendent of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander reserve. We claim the monies were paid to the protector or superintendent on “trust”, or subject to a fiduciary duty to act with care and control of the money received. The State breached its duties as trustee, or its duties as fiduciary, by failing to repay that money to the workers.
 
The Applicant also claims that the State acted unconscionably in the circumstances where a Deed of Agreement releasing the State had to be signed as a condition to obtaining a payment under the Reparations Scheme. We estimate that Indigenous workers that are eligible may be owed many multiples of what the State has offered in the Reparations Scheme, taking into account interest payments.
 
You can read the court documents filed by the Applicant here.

Stolen Wages - Gregory's story