UNION groups and Coles have called for enforceable, standardised housing standards to protect horticulture workers ahead of further arrivals in the new year.
Four union groups, including the Australian Workers’ Union, and Coles released the report on Friday raising concerns that poor housing could further “entrench vulnerabilities” for workers across the country.
The report comes after the Victorian Labour Hire Authority found in July that rooming houses in the Mildura area did not comply with minimum accommodation standards.
One house linked to a labour hire company was showing signs of overcrowding and safety risks.
The report, which included field research in Queensland and Tasmania earlier this year, cited concerns about the “insufficient enforcement and monitoring” of housing compliance against industry standards.
It identified overcrowding as an issue and said industry and workers had differing views about what was a “reasonable number of people” to share a bedroom or communal living space.
It also said there was no evidence costs were reduced if more workers shared space.
Aside from high rents, the report also noted deductions was an issue as workers had “limited transparency” on how prices were “determined or justified”.
“A common complaint … was the lack of flexibility in deductions incurred when workers are unable to work due to sickness, rain, or delays in the season commencing,” the report said.
The report warned that inflationary pressures and rising input costs in agriculture presented further risks to vulnerable workers.
“There is a risk that these more challenging economic conditions may have negative impacts for horticulture workers who have the least bargaining power and highest vulnerability,” the report said.
According to recent senate estimates hearings, 10,000 workers have arrived in the country under the PALM scheme to meet workforce shortages in agriculture.
The Federal Government, which intends to increase the number of PALM scheme workers to 35,000 by June next year, announced in the Federal Budget it would make changes to allow long-term workers to bring their immediate family to Australia.
One of the protections for workers under the PALM scheme was that employers must provide accommodation of a certain standard.
The report made nine recommendations, including the creation of a single enforceable standard for accommodation, and clear rules about would costs could be passed on to workers.
AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said standardisation of housing would address worker exploitation.
“The AWU has seen countless examples of terrible accommodation, where workers were still paying exorbitant fees to stay on site,” Mr Walton said.
“Just recently we saw four workers packed into an empty shipping container, furnished with nothing but two sets of bunks.”
Earlier this year, MADEC was found by the Victorian Labour Hire Authority to have contracted accommodation which did not meet minimum standards.
MADEC agreed to repay labour hire workers a portion of their wages that had been deducted for the accommodation.
