Harvest Trail Inquiry recovers $1 million for workers

WIDE-SPREAD non compliance in workplaces across Australia’s Harvest Trail has been uncovered following a Fair Work Ombudsman Inquiry, with inspectors recovering more than $1 million in unpaid wages for over 2,500 workers.

Fair go: Fair Work inspectors recovered more than $1 million in unpaid wages for thousands of horticulture workers.

WIDE-SPREAD non compliance in workplaces along Australia’s Harvest Trail has been uncovered following a Fair Work Ombudsman Inquiry, with inspectors recovering more than $1 million in unpaid wages for over 2,500 workers.

The trail follows the seasonal harvesting of fresh fruit and vegetables, involving thousands of horticulture and viticulture businesses.

During the inquiry, the FWO took court action against eight employers for serious alleged breaches of the Fair Work Act, with four actions involving labour hire contractors.

Six matters have now been finalised resulting in over $500,000 in penalties, and two remain before court.

As part of the inquiry, inspectors investigated 638 businesses connected with the harvesting of various crops including citrus, grapes, strawberries, cherries, mushrooms, apples and tomatoes.

There were 444 growers and 194 labour hire contractors investigated.

Over half of these businesses breached workplace laws, including deliberate and significant underpayments of base pay rates, falsification of records, deliberate withholding of payslips, non-payments and unauthorised deductions.

Some businesses were randomly selected, while other employers were targeted based on intelligence gathered from stakeholders including industry, government agencies and workplace participants.

Several employers with ongoing compliance issues were investigated multiple times.

The inquiry found that almost 70 per cent of harvest trail businesses employed visa holders.

Working holiday subclass 417 visa holders (aged 18-31 years old) were the most common migrant workers on the trail.

More than a third of employers were paying piece rates or a combination of piece and hourly rates, which are acceptable under horticultural awards, however, over 100 of those employers were not engaging pieceworkers correctly, by having no written piecework agreement or having an invalid piecework agreement.

“We will continue to monitor harvest trail employers and prioritise any requests for assistance from workers,” Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said.

“Growers and labour hire operators can expect to face further action if they do not comply with Australia’s workplace laws.”

The Fair Work Ombudsman will establish a stakeholder reference group to consider crucial next steps to implement the recommendations outlined in the inquiry report and help build a culture of compliance.