Farmers’ wages bills to rise

FRUIT and vegetable growers in North Queensland are bracing for higher wage bills as new legislation, which came into effect on Thursday, guarantees piece workers a minimum daily wage.

The change was campaigned for by the Australian Workers’ Union.

Under the Horticulture Award, full-time, part-time or casual employees can still be paid a piece rate for performing a task.

As of Thursday, the piece rate has to allow for the average competent worker to earn the equivalent of at least 15 per cent above the minimum hourly rate for the employee’s classification. For casuals, the minimum hourly rate includes the casual loading.

For casuals, this equates to at least $29.22 an hour and for full-and part-time workers, at least $23.38 an hour.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said it was one of the most significant industrial decisions of modern times.

“I believe this decision ranks among the great victories of our union’s 135-year history,” Mr Walton said.

“Fruit pickers in Australia have been routinely and systemically exploited and underpaid. Too many farmers have been able to manipulate the piece rate system to establish pay and conditions far beneath Australian standards.

“The changes our union proposed, and that the FWC (Fair Work Commission) has now accepted, will put a safety net under fruit pickers to ensure they get what every worker in Australia deserves: a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”

Bowen/gumlu Growers Association president Carl Walker said he was disappointed the AWU was treating farmers like bad people.

“I can see why they were chasing a minimum daily wage to make sure everyone has been looked after, but no one sees the other side of the coin – that some of the ones that were complaining about not making wages just were never suited for our industry,” Mr Walker said.

“The whole idea of piece work is to reward the ones that want to have a go.

“We never kept an eye on them, they would finish work, they would go home and you see what they made for the day and they always made above wages – everyone was happy.

“Some of those may have had a 10-minute sit-down every hour. As long as across the day they made above wages, it was fine.

“So now what we’re going to have to do is we’re going to have to make sure that everyone signs in, signs out and keep track of everyone’s hours because the ones that are sitting on their buckets they’ll say, ’Well, who cares? They have to pay us minimum wage anyway’.”

Mr Walker said the new minimum wage for piece workers would cause farmers to monitor employees more.

“If you’ve only actually worked five hours well then there’s only five hours worth of wages that you have earned,” he said.

“You might have been on the farm for eight hours, but you didn’t start early, you finished early, had a long lunch and a couple smokos.

“Whereas before no one cared, as long as they were still having a go, we didn’t care, but now, if you want to have a smoke, have a chat or go to the shops, you have to sign in and out because you are technically on wages.”

He said those who weren’t making wages were “either not suited to this line of work” or their employers weren’t “looking after” them.