Workers recruited from Vanuatu by a labour-hire operator worked 36 days straight on a Coffs Harbour blueberry farm and were underpaid more than $14,700, a Fair Work Ombudsman investigation has found.
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The 26 employees, many who spoke little English, were recruited by Melbourne-based Seasonal Labour Solutions Pty Ltd (SLS) last year.
The 416 visa-holders worked on a blueberry farm at Crossmaglen, near Coffs Harbour, between September 2015 and January 2016.
Apart from being short-changed the penalty rates they were entitled to on public holidays under their piece work agreements, the employees were denied appropriate rest breaks when they worked 36 consecutive days from September 29 to November 2, stopping work intermittently when rain interrupted harvesting.
SLS has signed a workplace pact aimed at encouraging behavioural change and future compliance with its workplace obligations.
Fair Work inspectors discovered the underpayments and breaches of the National Employment Standards (NES) in relation to maximum weekly hours when they audited work practices on the farm in December last year as part of the agency’s national Harvest Trail Inquiry into the horticulture and viticulture sectors.
The Harvest Trail Inquiry began in mid-2013 in response to ongoing requests for assistance from employees in the horticulture sector, and the agency’s observations that there was confusion among growers and labour-hire contractors about their workplace obligations.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is active in a range of industries known to employ significant numbers of overseas workers, including horticulture, hospitality, cleaning, convenience stores and trolley collecting.
On the Crossmaglen blueberry farm, Fair Work inspectors discovered that SLS had not complied with a requirement under the Horticulture Award to pay employees double piece rate penalties on the public holidays that fell during their employment, including Christmas Day.
This led to the workers being underpaid a total of $14,720. The largest underpayment of an individual worker was $770.
SLS has co-operated with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s investigation and back-paid the workers in full.
The company has entered into an enforceable undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman and will engage an external professional to audit its compliance with workplace laws and report on the results.
Enforceable undertakings were introduced by legislation in 2009 and the Fair Work Ombudsman has been using them to achieve strong outcomes against companies that breach workplace laws without the need for civil court proceedings.
“We use enforceable undertakings where we have formed a view that a breach of the law has occurred, but where the employer has acknowledged this and accepted responsibility and agreed to co-operate and fix the problem,” Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said.
Ms James said it was important that the integrity of the Seasonal Worker Programme be upheld, as it helped contribute to the economic development of participating countries, while also offering Australian employers in the horticulture industry the ability to employ workers from selected Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste when they cannot find enough local labour to satisfy seasonal demand.