GV a ‘trouble-spot’ in Fair Work report

The Fair Work Ombudsman says Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley region had the highest rate of overall non-compliance, with 83 per cent of targeted employers found to have failed to meet obligations under the Fair Work Act.

Regions with the next worst breach rates were NSW’s Riverina (72 per cent); Victoria’s Sunraysia and Shepparton/Goulburn Valley regions (70 per cent and 63 per cent respectively); and Coffs Harbour and Grafton region in NSW (61 per cent).

The Fair Work Ombudsman will now roll out a fresh campaign of horticulture sector inspections targeting labour hire providers, after this three-year campaign investigating more than 500 employers.

The FWO’s newly-released horticulture compliance report shows the non-compliance rates for employers targeted for surprise inspections in 15 regional hotspots under the regulator’s Horticulture Strategy 2021-2024.

Labour hire operators had notably higher breach rates than growers in every region where both were investigated.

Fair Work inspectors will return to the five least-compliant regions in the new campaign across the next two years, starting with Riverina businesses this month.

Under the completed three-year strategy, inspectors visited 360 farms and orchards and investigated 512 businesses in a rolling campaign coordinated with crop seasons.

The other hotspot regions inspected were: South Australia’s Adelaide and Adelaide Hills; Queensland’s Whitsunday Coast, Lockyer Valley, Sunshine Coast, Stanthorpe, Wide Bay and Moreton Bay; south-west Western Australia; and north/north-west Tasmania.

Under the strategy, the FWO issued $760,405 in fines to employers who had failed to meet their pay slip and record-keeping obligations, with 91 per cent of these 166 infringement notices going to labour hire providers.

Only 15 fines were issued to growers that employed workers directly.

Failures in record-keeping and providing workers with non-compliant or no pay slips were the most common breaches by employers across the national campaign.

The FWO also recovered $384,168 in wages for 464 underpaid workers after issuing 95 compliance notices: 55 to labour hire providers and 40 to growers.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the three-year Horticulture Strategy had found mixed levels of compliance.

“We found positive signs of real improvement in Queensland regions, but extreme or very high levels of non-compliance in five Victorian and NSW regions. Where we found breaches we took action,” Ms Booth said.

“Our inspectors will return to these five trouble-spot regions with a focus on labour hire providers, who made up 80 per cent of non-compliant employers in these locations.

“The Fair Work Ombudsman is committed to changing employer behaviour to ensure that workers in this sector receive all their legal entitlements — but we know we can’t do it on our own.

“We need the sustained investment of industry partners, including employer groups and unions, to deliver a more compliant horticulture sector.”

The horticulture sector is a priority for the FWO, given its history of high non-compliance with workplace laws and large proportion of vulnerable workers employed on farms and orchards, particularly young people on working holidays, migrants and visa holders.

Across the investigations, common themes found for non-compliant labour hire providers included lack of record-keeping, cash-in-hand payments, contracted workers not knowing who their employer is, and use of ‘supervisors’ who act as intermediaries (often making identifying the true employer difficult).

In January, the FWO signed an Enforceable Undertaking with Goulburn Valley fruit grower RJ Cornish & Co Pty Ltd, following unlawful wage deductions of nearly $127,000 from 112 employees. The company was inspected as part of the Horticulture Strategy.