The Fair Work Ombudsman will roll out a fresh campaign of horticulture sector inspections targeting labour hire providers, after a three-year campaign investigating more than 500 employers revealed the Australian regions with the worst rates of non-compliance with workplace laws.
The FWO's newly-released Horticulture compliance report shows the non-compliance rates for employers targeted for surprise inspections in 15 regional hotspots under the regulator's Horticulture Strategy 2021-2024.
Labour hire operators had notably higher breach rates than growers in every region where both were investigated.
Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley region had the highest rate of overall non-compliance, with 83 per cent of targeted employers found to have failed to meet obligations under the Fair Work Act.
Regions with the next worst breach rates were NSW's Riverina (72 per cent); Victoria's Sunraysia and Shepparton regions (70 per cent and 63 per cent respectively); and Coffs Harbour and Grafton region in NSW (61 per cent).
Fair Work Inspectors will return to these five least-compliant regions in the new campaign across the next two years, starting with Riverina businesses this month.
Under the completed three-year strategy, inspectors visited 360 farms and orchards and investigated 512 businesses in a rolling campaign coordinated with crop seasons.
The other hotspot regions inspected were: South Australia's Adelaide and Adelaide Hills; Queensland's Whitsunday Coast, Lockyer Valley, Sunshine Coast, Stanthorpe, Wide Bay, and Moreton Bay; South-West WA; and North/North-West Tasmania.
Under the strategy, the FWO issued $760,405 in fines to employers who had failed to meet their pay slip and record-keeping obligations, with 91 per cent of these 166 Infringement Notices going to labour hire providers. Only 15 fines were issued to growers that employed workers directly.
Failures in record-keeping and providing workers with non-compliant or no pay slips were the most common breaches by employers across the national campaign.
The FWO also recovered $384,168 in wages for 464 underpaid workers after issuing 95 Compliance Notices: 55 to labour hire providers and 40 to growers.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the three-year Horticulture Strategy had found mixed levels of compliance.
"We found positive signs of real improvement in Queensland regions, but extreme or very high levels of non-compliance in five Victorian and NSW regions. Where we found breaches we took action," Ms Booth said.
"Our inspectors will return to these five troublespot regions with a focus on labour hire providers, who made up 80 per cent of non-compliant employers in these locations.
"The Fair Work Ombudsman is committed to changing employer behaviour to ensure that workers in this sector receive all their legal entitlements - but we know we can't do it on our own.
"We need the sustained investment of industry partners, including employer groups and unions, to deliver a more compliant horticulture sector.
"This includes maximising awareness and use of our free education resources.
"We will also continue and increase our successful collaboration with other Australian Government and state regulators to ensure a comprehensive approach to holding to account employers doing the wrong thing."
The horticulture sector is a priority for the FWO, given its history of high non-compliance with workplace laws and large proportion of vulnerable workers employed on farms and orchards, particularly young people on working holidays, migrants and visa holders.
Employers assessed in Queensland's Wide Bay and Moreton Bay regions were the nation's most compliant, with only 18 per cent and 8 per cent respectively having not met obligations. Factors contributing to these positive compliance rates included more direct employment by growers, the ongoing education and compliance activities of the FWO and the Queensland Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit (LHLCU), leadership from employer and union organisations, and the role of programs such as Fair Farms.
Across the strategy's investigations, common themes found for non-compliant labour hire providers included lack of record-keeping, cash-in-hand payments, contracted workers not knowing who their employer is, and use of 'supervisors' who act as intermediaries (often making identifying the true employer difficult).
In addition to the Infringement Notices and Compliance Notices issued, in January 2025 the FWO signed an Enforceable Undertaking with R J Cornish & Co Pty Ltd, a fruit grower in Victoria's Goulburn Valley, following unlawful wage deductions of nearly $127,000 from 112 employees. The company was inspected in March 2024 as part of the Horticulture Strategy.
One investigation under the strategy continues and is being considered for high-level enforcement action.
Parallel regulation
Within the Horticulture Strategy, the FWO conducted more than 96 joint site inspections with other regulators: Australian Border Force, Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Queensland LHLCU, Victoria's Labour Hire Authority and WorkCover Queensland.
The FWO referred some businesses to the ATO for suspected cash economy operations and failure to pay superannuation.
The FWO also provided information relating to about 70 businesses to the state labour hire licensing regulators in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. This contributed to a range of actions by these regulators, which included in some cases cancellation of labour hire licences, conditions being put on labour hire licences, and warning letters to labour hire providers and users of labour hire providers (i.e. growers).
Overall, the FWO achieved effective parallel regulation through intelligence sharing, coordinated briefings and joint compliance activities with relevant authorities, and this will be continued in the years ahead.
Resources for horticulture employers and employees
The FWO promoted its Horticulture Showcase, which provides free information and resources for employers to better understand and comply with their obligations under the Fair Work Act and the Horticulture Award. The showcase contains in-language information and resources in more than 30 languages.
Migrant workers have the same rights and protections under the Fair Work Act as other employees in Australia, regardless of their visa status. Information, including on protections for visas, is available at our visa holders and migrants webpage.
