WORKER DEATHS UPROAR Islanders in ‘ slave- like conditions’

PACIFIC Island nations are threatening to axe a labour hire scheme that is vital to the Queensland fresh food industry after the deaths of 12 foreign workers amid claims of exploitation and slave- like conditions.

A dozen Pacific Islanders have died in Australia in the past five years while on the government- run Seasonal Worker Program, designed to alleviate labour shortages for Australian farmers.

Extreme neglect of workers is claimed to have contributed to some deaths, with many allegedly living in squalid conditions, underpaid and unable to feed themselves properly while working long hours in sweltering heat.

Under the Department of Employment program, farmers and labour- hire contractors are licensed to be Approved Employers and can bring the Islanders in on special work visas in regions with labour shortages.

Senior officials from many of the nations are threatening to axe the program if more workers die, a move which could damage Australia’s horticulture industry and the Pacific Islanders’ families who rely on the program to support their families.

A special investigation can reveal:

Six of the 12 Pacific Islanders died in the past 13 months and seven deaths were in Queensland.

Several workers lived in squalid conditions, including caravans and illegal shipping containers, were underpaid and struggled to feed themselves.

The State Coroner is investigating six of the deaths and the Queensland workplace regulator is investigating the most recent death, on a farm at St George.

The Federal Government was warned 16 months ago of problems with certain employers on the scheme, some of which employed workers who died.

New Zealand has run a similar scheme for more than a decade and has employed four times the number of workers Australia has, yet has had only nine deaths.

A source close to the Vanuatu government said the country had threatened to pull out of the program if there were more deaths, while the Samoan Prime Minister has expressed concerns about the death of a Samoan worker in Australia.

Telesia Lavaki, a cousin of the first man who died on the program in 2012, Vaea Mahina from Tonga, said she fought for years to get a superannuation payout for his family after his death on a NSW berry farm.

“I don’t want him to have died for nothing,” she said.

The Salvation Army said there had been examples of “extreme exploitation” within the program.

A spokesman for federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the work program “has robust safeguards in place to protect the rights of participating workers” and “to date no deaths have been the result of a workplace incident”.

“The vast majority of the more than 19,000 participants report a positive experience and are able to send earnings back home to their families and communities,” he said.