A Goulburn Valley fruit growing company has signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman to improve its workplace compliance after it made unlawful wage deductions of nearly $127,000 from 112 employees.
R J Cornish & Co. Pty Ltd grows peaches, pears, apples, lemons and oranges at two orchards in Cobram and Muckatah, in north-east Victoria, for suppliers and the fresh fruit market.
In March 2024, Fair Work Inspectors visited R J Cornish as part of the Fair Work Ombudsman's nation-wide surprise inspections of farms and orchards to check workers are receiving the right wages and entitlements.
Inspectors found the company had made unlawful deductions from employees' wages between July 2017 and June 2024. The company has admitted that it failed to pay current and former employees in full, by wrongly deducting $126,859 from their wages, for the hire of power ladders used in fruit-picking ($85,953), fuel related to the power ladders ($40,556), and sprinkler damage ($350).
The deductions were not permitted by the Fair Work Act as they were not principally for the benefit of the employees, and were not otherwise lawfully authorised. R J Cornish has ceased making such deductions.
Affected employees were employed on a casual basis as fruit pickers, with 39 of the underpaid employees being on working holiday visas.
The company has made almost all back-payments, with $123,249 back paid to 108 current and former employees. Individual back-payments owed ranged from $21 to $9,881, with the average being $1,132.
Under the EU, R J Cornish must back-pay the remaining $3,610 for four employees, who have not yet been able to be located, by making an application to pay the monies into the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The company will also make a $5,500 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund. It must also engage an independent auditor to check that workers are receiving their correct pay and entitlements under the Horticulture Award 2020.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the agriculture sector remains a priority area and employers are on notice to ensure they are meeting all their workers' lawful entitlements.
"The agriculture sector is a focus for the FWO, as many vulnerable workers such as visa holders and young people are employed at farms and orchards," Ms Booth said.
"The FWO has recovered more than $1.5 million in unpaid wages for 755 agriculture sector workers since December 2021.
"In this matter, we welcome the company's cooperation with our investigation, and their commitment to both rectify the deduction amounts in full and put in place a range of measures to ensure current and future hard-working employees are paid everything they are owed.
"Deductions from wages are lawful in only a limited range of situations, and employers must understand those laws or they can be caught out. We have a range of information to help employers get it right.
"We urge employers to take advantage of the array of free information and tools available on our website, such as the Horticulture Showcase, our Pay Calculator, and the Employer Advisory Service for small businesses."
As part of the EU, the company must ensure that its employees with human resources, payroll and rostering duties complete training on workers' entitlements within 90 days of the EU's commencement.
In the past year the Federal Court has imposed significant penalties against Victorian agriculture sector employers for breaches in litigations filed by the FWO.
In September 2024, the Fair Work Ombudsman secured $166,860 in court-ordered penalties against A & G Lamattina & Sons Pty Ltd, one of Australia's largest celery producers, for underpaying vulnerable migrant employees. The Lamattina farm is at Boneo, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.
In April 2024, the FWO secured $159,793 in court-ordered penalties against Lotus Farm in Werribee South, Victoria, for underpaying two employees, falsifying records to hide the underpayments, and making unlawful deductions.
