Labour hire company facing $590,000 in fines

A labour hire company that operated on Victorian berry and vegetable farms is facing huge fines. Here’s why.

A labour hire company that employed workers on Victorian berry and vegetable farms is facing prosecution for operating unlicensed.

A labour hire company that operated on Victorian berry and vegetable farms is facing fines of more than $590,000 for allegedly operating unlicensed.

The proceedings, filed in the Supreme Court on Friday, mark the first time a company has been prosecuted for the charge in Victoria.

The case will be the second taken to court by Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority, which was created in 2019 in response to a landmark inquiry into the labour hire industry and insecure work.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission filings show the company, A L Star Express Pty Ltd, is registered to a Keysborough address under director Srey Touch Chhean, a Cambodian national.

The LHA alleges A L Star provided workers to pick berries and vegetables in Victorian regions including Koo Wee Rup, Rosebud, Torquay and Devon Meadows.

The alleged offences carry maximum penalties of $591,744 for a company and $147,936 for an individual.

Any farmer or farm business found to have contracted A L Star knowing the business was unlicensed faces the same penalties. As yet, the LHA has not filed any claims against the farms that contracted workers through A L Star.

AL Star Express Pty Ltd is the second company to face prosecution since Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority was established in 2019.

Victoria was one of the first states in Australia to create an agency to oversee labour hire operators four years ago, following Queensland’s lead in 2017. It has cancelled 52 labour hire licences since it was formed.

Australian Workers’ Union secretary Dan Walton has urged the establishment of a national body to oversee the industry.

“(Labour hire authorities in Victoria and Queensland) are not fixing every problem, but at least it goes some way to try and provide greater transparency on labour hire operators,” he said.

“Around the rest of the country, those licensing arrangements just don’t exist.”

“It’s important for the government to take into consideration unified labour hire licencing around the country, and frankly, for farm owners and the bigger businesses that have got multiple sites, this is going to make their life a lot easier having a consistent set of laws which they need to operate under.”

The National Farmers Federation has supported the call for national laws.

“We are calling for a more streamlined system and for mechanisms that drum out dodgy operators,” an NFF spokeswoman told the Weekly Times last week.

Nationally, the Fair Work Ombudsman has been cracking down on the industry. Last week it announced it had issued fines of $176,028 to 55 labour hire companies and nine farms for pay slip and record-keeping breaches, which the AWU criticised as too lenient.

Farmers wishing to check if a labour hire operator is licensed in Victoria can do so via the Labour Hire Authority’s website.