Australia’s seasonal fruit picking industry has been forced into a reckoning over decades of abuse and underpayment of vulnerable workers — much of it amounting to modern slavery. But instead of launching an investigation into disturbing claims relating to its Seasonal Worker Program, the federal government has rushed to the industry’s defence.
In an interview with Fran Kelly this week, Nationals leader David Littleproud dismissed shocking reports that a “pandemic of worker abuse” had seen Pacific Island workers taking home less than $300 a week and being forced to pay for water and crowded accommodation in shipping containers.
He said the abuse that had been exposed in the industry was down to a few bad apples, and that the media had “sensationalised” what was really going on. “There is a small cohort in industry that do the wrong thing,” he said. “Our job is to try and weed them out, and the industry themselves are working with us to make sure we do that.”
While Littleproud’s claim may support the view of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), which has pushed back against a minimum wage for fruit pickers, it could not be further from the truth. Years of reports by the Fair Work Ombudsman make clear that the problems in the seasonal fruit picking industry are systemic.
Now new evidence has emerged showing things have worsened during the pandemic, with at least 1200 Pacific Island workers brought into Australia through the government’s Seasonal Worker Program “absconding” from their employers over the past year — a word researcher Victoria Stead points out is more commonly associated with escaping from custody. The number is five times higher than the previous year.
Instead of calling for an end to inhumane treatment, the government has dug in behind the industry, responding with an aggressive campaign warning pickers they may “bring shame to their families” if they run away from their jobs and risk having their visa cancelled. Even the Tasmanian government has spruiked “flexible pay” and “good working conditions” as part of its fruit picking program.
The government now faces a possible class action from Pacific Island workers led by Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt over years of wage theft and exploitation.
Last week the Fair Work Commission granted an Australian Workers Union (AWU) application to vary the horticulture award, meaning an end to one of the industry’s most Dickensian labour practices — paying workers by a “pick” rate. Workers are now required to receive a minimum wage regardless of how much fruit they pick.
While it’s undoubtedly a win for workers, almost nothing has been said about how the new minimum wage standards will be enforced. And with Australia reopening its borders to a new wave of migrant workers, the AWU says it’s hard to see what will stop companies from continuing to rip off this rural underclass.
“Even if someone’s award rate is $100 an hour, if you can’t enforce it, what does it matter?,” national secretary Daniel Walton said.
Labour hire ‘human traffickers’
It’s comments like Littleproud’s that shows just how far the government is willing to go to back big multinational agriculture firms that rely on exploitative labour practices.
Walton says while the big supermarkets are slowly coming on board with better supply chain management thanks to new laws around modern slavery, labour hire companies continued to operate in the shadows.
“Labour hire companies are the human traffickers in this industry,” he said. “You’d be hard pressed to find workers in other industries being exploited as much.”
The NFF, as well as the Australian Fresh Produce Association (AFPA), have fought against the minimum wage decision, and continue to argue that higher wages will result in higher prices for customers in the city and reduce the industry’s competitiveness in global markets. But labour economist Jeff Borland at the University of Melbourne says the equation is not that simple.
“Higher wages will potentially have the benefit of drawing more workers into that sector,” he said. “If there are crops that haven’t been picked then that has a benefit in terms of our output.”
It’s one thing for the industry to defend seasonal worker exploitation, but another for the government to claim there is no systemic problem. Littleproud should tell the truth: seasonal worker exploitation is rife and must stop.
Hooray for Stewart Levitt. And shame on everyone else for turning their backs on the problem.
The report says otherwise. Your potentially lived & anecdotal experience only confirms that there are lazy outliers and good horticulture companies. We’re supposed to be a civilised country, we shouldn’t tolerate abuse, underpayment and slave labor conditions.
Why should Lttleproud be the odd minister out and tell the truth?
Could it be, Camillie, that you don’t have a clue? Pacific Islander visa workers are not doing ‘slave labour’ on farms so that they can later get a job on the basic wage in some other industry – they are working here to send money home to their families – like so many other exploited labour forces in Asia and the Middle East.
If their Labour is as you describe, It is difficult to see how it is “slave labour”.
Absconding for a better job up the road is normal. Otherwise we’d all be working 60 hours a week for a pittance, not just small business owners.