Farm jobs cash bonus brings fruit pickers to Victorian farms

Victoria is luring fruit pickers to farms with cold hard cash on top of their wages — and judging by the number of new workers, it seems to be working.

A direct cash bonus is getting more fruit pickers on to farms.

Victoria’s $2500 cash bonus to lure workers onto fruit and vegetable farms appears to be working, with about 2000 people already signing up for the generous scheme.

Figures provided by Agriculture Victoria indicate the seasonal harvest sign-on bonus looks to be the most successful incentives that governments have tried to combat horticulture’s workforce shortages.

It comes after The Weekly Times revealed last week that just 1171 people – including 368 Australians – had taken advantage of the Federal Government’s offer to reimburse up to $6000 in relocation costs if they moved for short-term farm work.

Unlike the federal and other state incentive programs, Victoria’s scheme is the only one to directly give workers a cash payment on top of their wages for undertaking harvest work.

The bonus, introduced in February, gives workers up to $2430 for completing six weeks’ work. Workers receive $810 after completing 10 days, then receive the remaining $1620 at the end of the work period.

An Agriculture Victoria spokeswoman said more than 940 workers had been approved for the first $810 payment so far; she said “some” workers were on their way to claiming the full amount but did not specify how many.

Nearly 40 per cent of recipients said the main reason they applied for harvest work was for the cash bonus, with 95 per cent saying they now planned to continue the work.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said the figures were a positive sign.

“It is encouraging to see the Victorian harvest bonus being taken up. Hopefully the workers are having a meaningful time helping farmers and will consider jobs on farms in the future,” she said.

The Victorian Government has allocated $10 million to the scheme.