Farmers protest against workers’ pay changes, arguing fruit and veg prices will soar
July 13 2021 New Daily
Farmers have howled down changes to piece rate pay for picking workers, arguing the costs of fruit and vegetables will skyrocket for consumers.

But supply chain experts say it is “unfair to place the blame” of increased prices on workers who want a liveable wage when supermarkets are gouging farmers and consumers alike.   

The cost of food will be front and centre this week as the full bench of the Fair Work Commission meets to witness an application to force farms to pay the minimum casual pay of $25.41 an hour to pickers and packers.

Currently, workers can be remunerated based on the amount of fruit picked or vegetables harvested, with frequent reports of pickers earning as little as $2 per hour on piece rates.   

In the lead up to this week’s hearing farmers have been vocal opponents of any changes to the award rate – with some arguing a floor in the minimum pay rate would be burdensome and result in an increase in prices for customers.

Related: Farm workers say pay is so bad, they still need Centrelink
Dr Michael Callaghan, lecturer in ethics and sustainability at Deakin University, told The New Daily the horticultural industry’s inability to pay its labour force properly, showed the industry was “unsustainable”.

“When you look at the supply chain, where is the largest proportion of profit being made? The problem is not what wages are being paid, but the profit margins in the retail chain sector,” Dr Callaghan said.

Supermarkets are raking in profits of more than 200 per cent on some fruit and vegetables, and can afford to pay enough to cover a liveable wage for pickers, he said.

“For too long, the retail end of the market has been making massive profits but passing on costs to the consumer,” Dr Callaghan said.

“Primary producers need to look seriously at not making their profit from their employees, but taking care of them. That will make the industry stronger in the long run.”

Piece rate changes could change the industry
Mike Wren, 51, hit the harvest trail in Western Australia last year for a country change from his marketing job.

He spent the summer picking apples on an hourly rate. Recently, he moved to citrus on a piece rate.

Matt Wren picked on piece rate pay
Mark Wren said picking was hard work, but he enjoyed it.
The difference between the two wages was stark.

On an hourly rate, Mr Wren made about $1200 a week. On piece rates, that dropped to $700 to $800. He also had to pay a single-room board of  $190 a week.

“The turnover [of staff] was unbelievable. You were struggling to make minimum wage,” he said of work on the citrus farm.

“It’s not right. You’re trying to get people out there and working, but you need to be fair.”

Up up, prices are up
Senior industry analyst at IBISWorld Matthew Reeves said fruit and vegetable prices have risen over the past 10 years.

The impact of labour force issues on these rises was impossible to isolate, he said.

“[There are] always mitigating factors, especially with agriculture,” Mr Reeves said.

Changes for pay on farm work
The farming industry has been crying out for workers, with closed borders causing a labour shortage.
“There are drops in rainfall, crop health [and] weather events do play a significant role.”

It was a bit of “crystal ball gazing” to try and determine what effect changing the floor in the award could have on fruit and vegetables.

“The trend over the past decade has been rising and recent prices have been at a higher level,” Mr Reeves said.

“There’s been a labour shortage, but there have also been the issues with the impacts of floods, border closures, and (freight) between NSW, Victoria and other states. Those supply chain problems have played into it.”

Piece of mind
On Tuesday, Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton kicked off the fight in the Fair Work Commission by slamming piece rates for exacerbating exploitation in the industry.

“Piece rates (make) it easy for vulnerable workers to be cheated, ripped off and exploited,” Mr Walton said.

“An hourly wage floor would make it much easier for a worker – even a disadvantaged, vulnerable worker – to know if she’s being ripped off.”

The union presented the commission with 2016 research published in the Journal of Industrial Relations that suggested the average piecework picker was paid just $11.69 an hour.   

Farmers for piece
The National Farmers Federation said piece rates incentivised and awarded productivity, noting that almost half the industry uses them.

“Employment is the No.1 expense for many growers, at as much as 66 per cent of their operating costs, and any significant increase to that could see businesses fail,” NFF CEO Tony Mahar said.

He sought to separate the underpayment of workers with the piece rate structure, arguing that the worker exploitation in the industry is unrelated to the rate of pay.

“Employers who deliberately rip off workers must be held to account. The [federation] urges any farmworker who believes they have been deliberately underpaid to report their experience to the Fair Work Ombudsman.”

The hearing runs until Friday.

cods wrote on Jul 16^th, 2021 at 9:10am:


How long have you been a widow, cods?

whiteknight wrote on Jul 16^th, 2021 at 7:20am:



that's OK ... my Chinese grown tomatoes are just as flavorless as the Aussie grown ones.

Gordon wrote on Jul 17^th, 2021 at 3:19pm:


I often do ... they're still relatively flavorless.

grow your own at home and find out what tomatoes are supposed to taste like

Gordon wrote on Jul 17^th, 2021 at 8:20pm:



tomatoes also lose flavor if they've been refrigerated for too long. It doesn't matter where it ripens, you'll never get the full flavor from a store bought tomato.

Your next best bet if you don't want to grow your own is to go for a drive to the farm gate and buy them.

Baronvonrort wrote on Jul 18^th, 2021 at 5:34pm:



rubbish ... most of these farms have no signal anyway

Migrant worker says she ate from rubbish to survive as rampant fruit picking underpayment revealed   
The disturbing extent of wage theft, exploitation and ‘outright abuse’ inflicted by farm managers across the country has been revealed.

News.com.au
JUNE 15, 2021i

Dozens of Australian employers have admitted to shortchanging their own workers - and it's costing us billions.
A Taiwanese foreign worker says she was exposed to such horrific rates of underpayment on an Australian farm she was forced to eat from public rubbish bins just to survive. 

Kate Hsu said she was paid just $4 an hour picking oranges on a South Australian farm as the disturbing rates of wage theft and exploitation were revealed in a new report.

The study found an alarming majority of fruit and vegetable pickers in Australia were victims of wage theft, with nearly 80 per cent of 1300 horticulture industry workers reporting experiences of underpayment.

The survey, conducted by Unions NSW and the Migrant Workers Centre in Victoria, was the latest to expose the inhumane treatment of the workforce, which was accused of systematically exploiting vulnerable overseas workers on temporary visas.

Ms Hsu told the NCA NewsWire she was a victim of the payment structure known as ‘piece rate’, where a worker was paid by the quantity of fruit or vegetables they picked during a shift. 

“I was paid, at the lowest, $4 per hour,” she said through an interpreter about her experience picking fruit in Renmark, SA.

“I went dumpster diving to find food in recycle bins at supermarkets when I didn’t have enough money.”

Kate Hsu said she was paid as low as $4 per hour to pick fruit.


Unfortunately, Kate’s story is too common, according to the survey, which found the majority of piece rate workers were underpaid with some receiving as little as $1 an hour and only 2 per cent paid a legitimate rate of $26 an hour.

The lowest daily wages were reported by piece rate workers employed on grape and zucchini farms, earning on average $9 per day, followed by blueberry farm workers who averaged $10 per day.





Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said wage theft in the agriculture sector “is just a business model”, where “migrant workers are consistently underpaid well below the minimum rate”.

He said the horrific treatment went beyond underpayment, with many overseas workers left vulnerable as their employees had the power to influence their visa status.

“Sexually harassed, physically assaulted, often threatened with ‘well if you don’t like it, you can go’,” Mr Morey told NCA NewsWire.

“Many of these workers are out there for 88 days to try and extend their visa for a second year, so they’re basically kept out there. We’re basically sending young people out there to be exploited but there’s no ability to then complain about it.” 

Kate picked oranges in Renmark, SA.


Migrant Workers Centre director Matt Kunkel said the survey proved workers were starved of earning a living wage.

“Farm managers are engaging in rampant wage theft and outright abuse,” he said.   

“Many are also responsible for injuries sustained by workers, along with discrimination, bullying, sexual assault and harassment.

“This is a shameful, inhumane and blatantly racist way to treat migrant farm workers on whom we depend for so much of our food – and who pay their taxes in this country.

“We are demanding the federal government undertake a range of urgent measures to address this catastrophic situation.”

Mr Morey said he was frustrated by the common narrative shared by commentators and politicians who implied unemployed Australians were lazy and should go to the regions to pick fruit.

“People who have been out there tell their friends and families what’s happened to them — you work hard all day in a 9-12 hour shift not making the minimum rate of pay, you’ve been exploited, you’ve been abused or assaulted,” he said.

“All these stories come through so why would you go and do a job where you know you are going to get underpaid?”   

The AWU is going to the Fair Work Commission this week to ensure fruit and vegetable pickers are guaranteed at least minimum wage, instead of being ripped off by “piece rates” that have seen some workers paid as little as $3 an hour.

The AWU wants the Horticulture Award amended to guarantee every worker on every farm is entitled to take home the minimum casual rate of pay, currently $25.41 per hour.