Horticulture non-compliance triggers wave of workplace inspections

After three years of workplace investigations, horticulture will undergo troublespot inspections due to rampant non-compliance with workplace laws.

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) conducted a three-year campaign investigating more than 500 horticulture employers across Australia – revealing some of the regions with the worst rates of non-compliance with workplace laws.

According to the regulator, Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley region had the highest rate of overall non-compliance, finding that 83 per cent of targeted employers failed to meet their obligations under the Fair Work Act.

Following these areas were NSW’s Riverina (72 per cent), Victoria’s Sunraysia and Shepparton regions (70 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively), and Coffs Harbour and Grafton region in NSW (61 per cent).

The alarming rates of non-compliance discovered by the FWO have led to the rollout of a fresh campaign of horticulture sector inspections set to target labour hire providers, especially those who were found to have had notably higher breach rates than growers.

The previous three-year campaign included visits to 360 farms and orchards paired with investigations into 512 businesses.

As a result, the FWO issued $760,405 in fines to employers who failed their payslip and record-keeping obligations, with 91 per cent of the notices being directed towards labour hire providers. Just 15 fines were issued to growers that employed workers directly.

On top of that, the regulator recovered $384,168 in wages for 464 underpaid workers.

“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,” said Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth.

“Our inspectors will return to these five troublespot 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. This includes maximising awareness and use of our free education resources.”

Given the high rates of non-compliance across the industry, the horticulture sector is set to remain a priority for the FWO moving forward, especially considering the number of vulnerable workers who operate within the sector.

“We will also continue and increase our successful collaboration with other Australian government and state regulators to ensure a comprehensive approach to holding to account employers doing the wrong thing,” said Booth.

Similar contraventions discovered in the campaign 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)”.

Despite the conclusion of the campaign, the FWO confirmed that one investigation is ongoing and can be considered a high-level enforcement action.