Australian Workers’ Union calls for minimum wage for fruit pickers

Farms would be required to pay workers a minimum $24.80 an hour under changes being sought by the Australian Workers’ Union.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton. Picture: Grant Wells

Farms would be required to pay workers a minimum $24.80 an hour under changes being sought by the Australian Workers’ Union following revelations that backpackers were being paid as little as $3 an hour to pick fruit.

The AWU will apply on Wednesday to the Fair Work Commission to amend the Horticulture Award to guarantee that every worker on every farm in Australia is entitled to take home the minimum casual rate of pay.

Currently, farms do not have to pay the minimum award rate, with workers paid depending on the quantity of fruit picked or ­vegetables harvested.

Under the union’s proposal, piecework arrangements would still be allowed but every worker would be guaranteed the award rate as a floor.

“After a slew of investigations, inquiries and media exposes over a decade, we know for a fact that worker exploitation, worker abuse and even modern slavery is rife on Australian farms,” AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said. “There is no reason we have to accept this shameful reality. Australia was founded on the principle that if you do a fair day’s work you should be guaranteed a fair day’s pay. There is no reason we should consider farms to be an exception to this rule in 2020.”

A recent union-sponsored investigation by the McKell Institute into conditions in the Coffs Harbour region found backpackers working in the fruit-­picking industry were being paid as little as $3 an hour.

The probe found workers were being offered pay rates as low as $60 a day on blueberry farms on the NSW north coast, coerced into unpaid labour, and stuck in crowded, significantly overpriced share ­accommodation.

Despite workers being promised rates of $700 to $1000 a week, it found rates of pay had fallen to as low as $3 an hour on some north coast farms — well below the minimum award rate of $24.80 an hour.

Mr Walton said it was “madness” that fruit and vegetable employers did not record how many hours people were working. He said the hours should be logged and people paid accordingly.

“The farm employers lobby is fond of claiming fruit pickers on piecework arrangements make more than the minimum wage. If that’s true then they should have zero problem with supporting our amendment,” he said.

“The ethical farmers who employ people on decent rates will face no disadvantage from our amendment. It is only the wage thieves, scammers and shonks who have anything to fear.”

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said on Tuesday that the NFF would reserve judgment on the union application until it examined the details of the proposal. “However, it must be stressed that when properly used, piece rates reward productivity and no change to the award can be allowed to compromise that position,” he said.

Mr Walton said shearers, station hands and others on piecework rates were guaranteed the minimum hourly rate. “The reason farmers are finding it hard to attract workers to fruit picking is because people don’t want to be ripped off and exploited,” he said.