Those five words were: “taking non-monetary benefits into account”.
These words turned into a Guardian Australia story whose headline claimed workers could be “part-paid with fruit and veg”.
The Australian Workers’ Union said the NFF’s stance was “deeply alarming” and the days of vulnerable workers being “paid” with food instead of money “should be long behind us”.
The full sentence is actually a dot point in a list of seven NFF recommendations designed to improve industrial relations.
“Streamline the creation of enterprise bargaining by, for example, returning to the ‘no-disadvantage’ test, taking non-monetary benefits into account, or imposing strict decision timelines,” the dot point reads.
The reality of finding farm workers is a bleak one, but for centuries farmers have been sweetening the pot with common-sense incentives like on-farm accommodation, home-cooked meals and even fuel money.
The NFF plans to advocate for greater recognition of these “non-monetary benefits” at the Federal Government’s upcoming jobs and skills summit, among many other ideas.
The line about taking non-monetary benefits into account appears as an idea under recommendation four (reform industrial relations to be efficient, fair and effective).
Other ideas floated in the dot point list include: introducing criminal penalties for wage theft, re-introducing the ‘protecting migrant workers’ legislation and giving greater scope for the operation of individual flexibility arrangements.
Recommendation one focuses on removing unwarranted hurdles to farm work — particularly unnecessary bureaucracy — and encouraging the creation of on-farm accommodation.
Recommendation two is to streamline labour migration.
“Most farm jobs are not vacant because of a lack of foresight in planning and skills development, but because of chronic disinterest or because the work is not located near population centres,” the paper reads.
Recommendation three is reforming the VET framework.
“(Ag training) is frequently located in rural, regional and remote (RRR) areas, requires access to sizeable land mass, uses expensive equipment and animals which have to be maintained and cared for, and tends to be popular in RRR communities with lower population densities than urban areas,” the paper says.
“This meant that a VET scheme which is profit-driven is less likely to offer agricultural courses and training. And a lack of availability of farm VET courses is self-perpetuating.”
Recommendation five is to support evidence-based decision making, which basically means more data research on ag jobs.
The Albanese Government has signalled it wants to use the upcoming jobs summit and the subsequent Employment White Paper to boost productivity and pay.
12°C