Worker exploitation has become an “established norm” in pockets of Australia’s horticulture, a new report has found. The University of Adelaide report, led by Joanna Howe, said Australian farmers often relied on illegal labour, or risked leaving their crops to fail.
The Howe study included a survey of more than 330 growers across Australia, which found 40 per cent had not been able to hire enough workers. More than 80 farmers said they had left produce unpicked as a result.
“There needs to be a better, targeted, more reliable and sustainable labour migration program,” it said.
The National Farmers’ Federation said the report showed some farmers were choosing between leaving their produce on the vine to rot or breaking the law. “Undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, sometimes by the growers themselves, but more often at the hands for rogue labour hire operators,” NFF chief executive Tony Mahar said. “As an industry we have zero tolerance for worker exploitation,” he said.
“By far the majority of farmers who don’t comply do so inadvertently or because they feel their only option is to let their crop spoil and therefore forsake a year’s income.” The National Farmers’ Federation has renewed its call for dedicated agriculture visa. The report, released today, follows the Federal Government’s Migrant Workers’ Taskforce report, released on Thursday.
The taskforce, chaired by former ACCC boss Allan Fels, was set up in October 2016 in response to a series of migrant worker underpayment scandals, including at 7-Eleven. It found that labour hire companies had “systematic problems with exploitation”. The report calls for jail time for systemic exploitation of migrant workers.
High demand for farm labour
The Government has accepted, in principle, all 22 recommendations. They included that serious breaches of exploitative conduct be met with jail time, and a national licensing scheme for labour hire operators in “high risk” sectors of horticulture, meat processing, cleaning and security.
The Recruitment and Consulting Services Association, which represents the labour-hire industry, said the high demand for farm labour could lead to worker exploitation. “The reality is that there are still a number of growers out there, who, because of price pressures, or because of naivety, simply don’t ask the right questions,” RCSA chief executive Charles Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said reputable labour hire firms did not exploit workers and rogue operators were criminals working outside the industry. “We’re seeing a large number of same-nation ‘gang masters’ as we call them, sourcing primarily Asian workers to come in and harvest crops,” he said. “And we’re really concerned that they’re not even within the industry, they are simply criminal syndicates.”
Horticulture lobby group AusVeg has welcomed the commitment to a National Labour Hire Registration Scheme. “Growers need to have confidence in the hiring process and want to be sure that their labour hire contractors are paying workers properly and doing the right thing,” AusVeg spokesman Tyson Cattle said. “Our industry has had enough of being labelled ‘high-risk’ for workers due to exploitative outliers, and these recommendations are a good step towards cutting them out of the labour landscape,” he said.
