Illegal Picking Industry Rife in Australia

It is increasingly difficult to find work for local Australians, says Carol, who now finds herself out of work at least three months of the year.
Illegal Picking Industry Rife in Australia
Despite produce gluts, Australian farm pickers are finding it increasingly difficult to find work, as contractors overlook them for cheaper labor. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)
8/30/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/52771511.jpg" alt="Despite produce gluts, Australian farm pickers are finding it increasingly difficult to find work, as contractors overlook them for cheaper labor. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)" title="Despite produce gluts, Australian farm pickers are finding it increasingly difficult to find work, as contractors overlook them for cheaper labor. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1815329"/></a>
Despite produce gluts, Australian farm pickers are finding it increasingly difficult to find work, as contractors overlook them for cheaper labor. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)
SYDNEY, Australia—When Carol Davies emigrated to Australia from New Zealand 10 years ago to become a professional farm picker, she could hardly imagine her new career would introduce her to a world of lucrative business operations rife with intimidation, gross immigration breaches, tax evasion, and allegedly murder.

Speaking out for the first time, Carol asked for her real name to remain anonymous out of fear for her safety.

It is increasingly difficult to find work for local Australians, says Carol, who now finds herself out of work at least three months of the year.

According to Carol, who used to live in a northern Queensland town of Bowen, rings of contractors are destroying what used to be a ”great life style, great money” work of the Australian farm pickers.

“They don’t want to hire Australians, because we want our superannuation [retirement package] paid. We know what the award rates are. We speak up.”

Instead, tourists are hired as cheap labor and brought to the farms by contractors - essentially middlemen who are hired by the farmers to organize the labour.

Carol testifies to a nationwide epidemic of people entering as tourists, then overstaying their visas and engaging in illegal work on the farms.

She says most of the farmers are happy for contractors to be involved.

“They [farmers] don’t have to deal with the workers, anything that happens … they don’t have to worry about super, tax, it’s all the contractor’s job.”

It is not surprising that hundreds on tourist visas, the majority from low socio-economic environments, come to Australia.

The contractors pay for their airfares, guarantee work on the farms, arrange for accommodation and pay wages. Carol says she has met people who have overstayed their visas by anywhere from a few months to 12 years.

“I was talking to a [Pacific Island] contractor. He got 200 workers. How does he get all these workers? He rings [home] and gets them all to come over. ... He will pay for the airfares, then they have to pay it off,” says Carol.

Last year, around 48,700 people remained in Australia following the expiry of their temporary visas, according to Department of Immigration data. Tourist visa breaches comprise more than 90 percent of those offenders, with just over 40,000 caught overstaying in 2009.

The Department of Immigration also puts Asian tourists at the top of the offenders list. In 2009, of those who overstayed 5,830 originated from China, followed closely by Americans at 4,860 and then Malaysians at 3,640.

The main advantage of hiring illegal tourists is that contractors can pay them at least 50 cents (US$0.45) per bucket less than an Australian picker, which can make the contractor rich.

Pickers can pick 60-120 buckets daily depending on skill, according to Carol. The picker earns $1 per bucket, which the contractor sells to the farmer for $1.50. Assuming a picking rate of 100 buckets per day, seven days per week, the worker earns $700 per week and the contractor $350.

However, the contractor also provides accommodation at around $100 a week, and transport to and from work at $10 per day. This reduces the take-home pay for the worker to $530.

“That’s more than they would get back home, so they say nothing,” says Carol.

Meanwhile, the contractor earns, adding the expenses he deducted from the worker, about $520 per week on each farm hand.

“Multiply that by, say six workers and this little team made him more than $3,000 a week,” says Carol. 

Change Unlikely

It is not surprising that people like Carol are getting fed up with the unfair operations, but she is not optimistic that it will change any time soon.

“It’s the contractors. … They won’t stop, they are making thousands of dollars.”

Queensland state Workcover Ombudsman Don Brown, is reluctant to confirm a large scale problem, but does note that there have been “anecdotal” cases of illegal tourists working on the farms.

“It does not surprise me. … We’ve had allegations along these lines. We get quite a few anecdotal claims of illegal workers working everywhere,” says Brown.

In the past 12 months, Brown says he has received around 25 such allegations.

The latest claim was on July 22 in the Bundaberg region, where a complaint was lodged regarding a large number of workers living in a facility behind barbed wire.

“We did observe some residents leaving early in the morning,” he says of the case, which has since been referred to Immigration for further investigation.

The Department of Immigration admits it is “acutely aware” of overstaying tourists who engage in illegal farm work.

“We engage in regular investigations across Australia to locate and remove people in breach of their visas,” said a Department spokesperson.

“It is a requirement for employers to ensure people in their employ have valid visas and are remunerated according to award conditions. Failure to do so can lead to large fines and sanctions for the employers.”

But on the ground, the Department’s actions do not seem to come fast enough. Carol describes one instance of working side-by-side illegal with tourists on a farm in Shepparton.

“There were only three of us left at one farm. … The contractor’s pickers were taken away the night before,” she said.

“That was Tuesday afternoon. … By Friday, the contractor had more illegal workers.”

Convicted employers face fines of up to AU$13,200 (US$11,771) and two years imprisonment, while companies face fines of up to AU$66,000 (US$58,885) per illegal worker.

However, back in North Queensland the penalties appear to be little deterrent for the contractors.

Carol says the gangster-like rings of contractors is a reality she would rather forget.

“A lot of people are too scared to speak up ... they will do something. There have been murders,” says Carol Davies courageously.

Earlier this year an Indian laborer was found in a burnt-out car in Griffith—the heart of Australia’s rice and citrus farms.

In an ABC Australia radio interview, Harry Goring from the Australia’s Worker’s Union suggested that the chief motive suspected was that Ranjodh Singh challenged his contractor for being underpaid—and then suffered the consequences.