Baiada sets aside $500,000 after workers paid chicken feed for shifts up to 19 hours

A CONTRACTOR to suppliers of chickens to Coles and Woolworths paid its workers as little as $11.50 an hour for 19-hour shifts.

close up of poultry processing in food industry

ONE of Australia’s largest suppliers of chickens to supermarket giants including Coles and Woolworths has set aside $500,000 for workers after investigations revealed some contract staff were doing shifts of up to 19 hours on half the minimum wage.

Baiada, parent company of Steggles and Lilydale Free Range Chicken, has been forced to enter a three-year “proactive compliance deed” to stamp out further unlawful practices at its worksites throughout NSW.

A NSW Fair Work Ombudsman investigation earlier this year found widespread exploitation of staff and failure to comply with workplace laws.

Many affected workers were 417 working holiday visa holders employed via labour hire contractors in China and Taiwan.

Immigration and Centrelink officials at Baiada Victorian plant earlier this year.

Police outside Baiada’s Victorian factory.

“Exploitation included significant underpayments, extremely long hours of work, high rents for overcrowded and unsafe worker accommodation, discrimination and misclassification of employees as contractors,” a NSW Fair Work statement said.

In one instance, two Taiwanese workers reported working without pay for three days, working 17-hour shifts each day at the company’s Beresfield plant near Newcastle.

One contractor hired by Baiada was paid $1.078 million in a single month, yet paid its workers as little as $11.50 an hour for shifts of up to 19 hours a day.

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Up to 30 staff were found living in a six-bedroom house with only two bathrooms between them.

As part of the new compliance arrangement, Baiada has agreed to a range of workplace improvements.

They include a complaints hotline and detailed photo ID for staff, an electronic time-keeping system recording each employee’s working hours and independent auditing of contractors.

Baiada managing director Simon Camilleri said many measures outlined in the compliance deed were already under way.

“Our ongoing priority is to ensure that contractors’ workers are being paid correctly and treated fairly, and that contractors are acting lawfully,” he said.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James called on the company to “step up and take responsibility for the conduct of its contractors”.

“While many Australian employers want to do the right thing, there are some who seek to gain competitive advantage by exploiting vulnerable workers, such as visa holders,” she said.

“Sustainable changes require businesses at the top of supply chains to partner with us to stamp out dodgy operators who deliberately set out to use exploitative labour practices.”

Originally published as Baiada sets aside $500,000 after workers paid chicken feed for shifts up to 19 hours