The Fair Work Ombudsman has urged employers in the agriculture sector to improve upon their compliance of workplace laws.
The reminder comes as the agency reported that the fines imposed on the sector for payslip and record-keeping breaches has exceeded $170,000 nationally since it began its agriculture strategy in December 2021.
In accordance with the strategy, Fair Work inspections have targeted employers in 15 ‘hot spot’ regions where FWO intelligence suggests non-compliance may be common. The most recently inspected regions are Queensland’s Whitsunday Coast and Stanthorpe, Adelaide and Adelaide Hills, and south-west WA.
Inspectors have issued 64 Infringement Notices for payslip and record-keeping breaches, with employers fined a total of $176,028. 55 of the Infringement Notices were issued to labour hire entities and nine to growers.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the regulator’s agriculture strategy had highlighted the importance of employers following record-keeping and pay slip laws.
“Record-keeping is a bedrock of meeting workplace laws,” Parker said. “Breaches related to record-keeping can indicate increased risks of underpaying, whether intentionally or not.”
Parker noted that inspectors consistently found higher levels of non-compliance in relation to labour-hire companies, as opposed to growers who directly engage workers.
“It’s a red flag if workers can’t identify their employer and are paid cash-in-hand, without pay slips, by individuals seemingly unrelated to the apparent employing entity,” Parker explained. “This is prevalent in multi-level supply chains where we consistently find wrongdoing.”
Inspectors have also issued 18 Compliance Notices – 10 for underpayments and eight for non-monetary breaches. They issued nine of the Compliance Notices to labour-hire entities and nine to growers. Five were handed out on-the-spot during recent site inspections to employers who had failed to provide new workers with the required information statements.
“Failing to hand out the Fair Work Information Statement or Casual Employment Statement to new workers is no trivial matter,” Parker said. “We expect employers to meet this legal obligation, which helps to keep their hard-working employees informed.
“With unannounced hot spot inspections continuing this year and next, growers and labour hire entities are on notice,” she warned. “They may get a visit from Fair Work Inspectors very soon – and we will take enforcement action where appropriate.”
