Illegal worker amnesty: Farmers admit problem and want deal to fix issue

EXCLUSIVE: VICTORIAN farmers want an amnesty to flush out illegal workers in the horticulture sector.

Job’s on: Illegal overseas workers could be offered visas under the amnesty proposal put forward by the Victorian Farmers Federation Horticulture Policy Council.

EXCLUSIVE: VICTORIAN farmers want an amnesty to flush out illegal workers in the horticulture sector.

The farmers have made the unprecedented call to protect both themselves and any illegal workers found harvesting fruit and vegetable crops.

In a rare admission the industry has a problem with illegal labour, the Victorian Farmers Federation Horticulture Policy Council wants an amnesty on workers without working visas.

VFF horticulture group president Emma Germano said the council had signed off on the policy, which calls for illegal workers to come forward without fear of being deported, to ease labour shortages and ensure fresh produce does not become too expensive for consumers.

“We know there are entrenched workers who do not have working rights. There should be an amnesty that allows them to become legal,” Ms Germano told The Weekly Times.

“Why wouldn’t the Government want to make them legal?

“Is the Government happy there’s a black economy for labour?

“The only way for them to be protected is to flush them out — have the amnesty and after that there should be no excuses.”

Ms Germano said Government estimates indicated there could be more than 60,000 people in Australia without a visa and she expected many were on farms or in hospitality.

“No political party wants to go anywhere near this,” Ms Germano said. “We’re not suggesting permanent residency (for illegal workers), but why don’t we give the people that come forward the opportunity to get a working visa for two or three years?”

Ms Germano said workers who declared their illegal status under the amnesty could be allowed to continue to work safely so crops were harvested efficiently.

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Ms Germano said systems could be put in place, such as withholding a portion of earnings until the worker left Australia, to ensure the worker adhered to conditions of the work permit granted through the amnesty process.

“We don’t want a free-for-all. We don’t want to kick Australians out of jobs, but we need a reliable, productive workforce,” she said.

“Farmgate prices are too low, yet consumers are spending too much for their groceries — all this money is getting lost in the supply chain.”

Ms Germano said there was no need for changes to the award wage and the call for an amnesty was not about hiring foreign workers because they were perceived to be cheaper, but to fill a genuine labour shortage.

Ms Germano said her family’s Gippsland farm exemplified the pressure growers were facing.

This spring will mark the first season in 15 years that Ms Germano’s family has not planted a broccoli or cauliflower crop at their Mirboo North farm, because of the increasing cost of labour.

“Access to labour is absolutely 100 per cent the biggest issue for our industry right now,” she said.

“From a financial perspective the return does not cover the risk you must go through to employ workers (direct on farm). For broccoli or cauliflower you’re looking at 20 staff per 100 acres”

Ms Germano said her family moved to direct employment — which included providing housing that must be approved by the local council — when the labour-hire firm the farm had been using could not guarantee the workers on her farm had legal entitlement to be there.

“The fact that growers are expected to be the immigration department, the tax man and everything in between is outrageous. It’s got to the stage where the ability to grow the crop is the least important thing,” she said.

“(The) Immigration Department says it is up to the farmer to know the workers’ entitlements.”

Ms Germano said a survey of VFF horticulture members showed 50 per cent of farms used labour-hire contractors.

While backpackers provided suitable labour for some growers, Ms Germano said the industry could not expect backpackers, often employed for just months at a time, to solve the labour shortage.

“Productivity dropped by 40 per cent when we moved from using a labour hire company to backpacker labour on our farm,” she said. “We need enough local productive staff in the country, I’m not saying we need to lighten regulation, but there are not enough people with working rights here in Australia.”

Ms Germano said an amnesty in Canada had protected illegal workers.

“There’s not a developed country in the world that doesn’t have this problem.”

In a submission to the Victorian Government’s inquiry into labour hire last year, Victorian Legal Aid also called for the introduction “of an amnesty for migrant workers who complain about workplace exploitation in respect of any alleged breach of their visa conditions”.

This week, in a joint submission to the Department of Immigration’s border protection visa review, nine horticulture industry peak bodies said “an inability to access workers seriously compromises the sustainability of the Australian vegetable growers”.

“A 2016 national survey of growers found 40 per cent of growers had left vegetables unpicked in the last five years because of an inability to source workers,” the submission said.