Australian fruit farmers face harvest headache

NASHDALE (New South Wales) • Australian fruit grower Michael Cunial's cherry orchard looks set to yield a bumper crop this year. He has just one problem: the harvest.

Mr Cunial relies on seasonal workers during harvests, but many have been shut out of the country since its international borders closed in March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Even if he can find workers, he may have to pay them more.

He hires about 50 workers for the annual harvest and pays them for what they can pick. But the system has left many workers earning less than the minimum wage, so the rules may soon change.

"The system of a piece rate tends to make sense," Mr Cunial said at his 50-ha farm in Nashdale. "If you want to have a go, you can actually make really good money."

The piece-rate system has been condemned by the Fair Work Commission, Australia's industrial relations tribunal.

Ruling on a complaint by the Australian Workers Union, it said seasonal farm workers should get the minimum hourly wage of A$25.41 (S$25.04). Farming federations, which oppose the finding, have until Friday to appeal.

According to a 2018 study of over 8,000 Australian farms, 56 per cent of them underpaid a proportion of their workers.

Victor, a young Frenchman who asked not to be identified by his full name, had to work 88 days in farming to be allowed to stay a second year - a condition of his working holiday visa.

"I have worked in the vineyards... We were paid 11 cents a branch. I was among the top 10 per cent and I still got only A$9 an hour, less than half the minimum wage," he said.

Mr Remy Genet, who manages the seasonal workers on Mr Cunial's cherry orchard, said: "I have got guys who can fill 60 lugs (fruit crates), earn A$700 in a day, and others who can fill only nine lugs in the same field. The difference is the motivation."

Mr Cunial is concerned about the prospect of laying off workers who do not pick enough if there is a switch to hourly pay.

It has also been hard to recruit since the borders closed.

The number of young people in Australia on working holiday visas fell from nearly 120,000 in December 2019 to 39,000 in 2020.

To lure seasonal workers to his farm, Mr Cunial raised his rates last year by 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

This year, he may have to go further, he said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE