Victorian farmers and their State Government are at loggerheads over proposed labour hire licencing laws due to hit parliament this week.
Fruit and vegetable growers need large amounts of workers for short periods on farms when they need to harvest their produce for market.
To do this they often use labour hire contractors who serve as middle men, organising workers to harvest the crops of multiple farms across a variety of regions.
However, many investigations have uncovered evidence of widespread abuse and exploitation in the sector.
In response, the Victorian Government held its own inquiry and is taking its plan to parliament this week to licence labour hire contractors.
The Government's proposed $8.5 million plan would:
- Require labour hire firms to be licenced
- Compel businesses who use labour hire firms to only use licenced operators
- Create an authority to monitor and investigate the industry
- Impose criminal and civil penalties for those who do not comply.
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"We found that there were some labour hire companies that weren't meeting any of these standards, that were fly-by-nighters trying to make a buck by putting people into jobs and ripping them off," Industrial Relations Minister Natalie Hutchins said.
She said she believed, given the evidence of abuse, it was the right thing to do.
Farmers against the plan
The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is campaigning against the bill.
It said the news laws would just replace existing laws that are not properly enforced, would add costs to growers, and would not fix the issue of labour hire abuses.
"This bill has been pitched as trying to protect vulnerable workers and protect people from exploitation," VFF horticulture president Emma Germano said.
Ms Germano said she wanted a stronger attitude to enforcement by the State Government.
At the moment she believed the authorities were not properly resourced to deal with the thousands of businesses growing fruit and vegetables in the state.
"It's more of a PR activity about enforcement," she said.
Growers also have concerns that labour hire businesses would pass additional costs onto them, additional costs that they could not pass on to supermarkets.
"We can't go to retailers and say that we've got a cost that we've had to bear, they're not going to take it on for us," Mitchell McNabb, an orchardist at Ardmona, said.
"Further costs are just going to make it less and less viable for our industry.
Minister Hutchins defended her plan and added that the new laws were worth the extra costs.
"We hear time and time again how hard it is to attract young, fit workers to our country areas, and what we're saying is 'let's set a standard'," she said.
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Government confident the bill will pass
The labour hire licencing bill has already passed the lower house of state parliament and will head to its upper house this week.
The Liberal and National parties are voting against the bill and it will need crossbench support to pass.
Minister Hutchins is confident the bill will pass.
However, Victoria's shadow attorney-general and Liberal John Pesutto agreed with the farm lobby that existing laws were adequate and wants to see the bill defeated.
"Everybody wants the same thing and should want the same thing, which is workers being paid in accordance with the law," he said.
