MANJIMUP apple growers already hit by low prices for their fruit could face another financial blow later this year by having to start paying their casual workers overtime.
It is not just apple growers who will have to pay more to have their crop harvested and sorted.
All fruit and vegetable growers will have to start paying casual employees overtime after 38 ‘normal’ working hours a week under changes proposed for the Horticulture Award 2010.
Paul Good, operations manager at Newton Orchards, Manjimup, said extending overtime rates to cover casual employees would “torpedo” Australia’s fresh fruit and vegetable industry.
He said it would push growers’ costs beyond price points at which consumers choose local produce over cheaper imported fruit and vegetables and drive the local growers out of business.
Mr Good said the industry relied on casual workers because of the intermittent nature of the work and the “local apple industry particularly was “not in a good place”.
“The big one is the 38 hours,” he said.
“Most fruit and veg farmers will have clocked up 38 hours by lunchtime Thursday.
“Many seasonal crops, including some of our apple varieties, have a very short window for harvesting at the optimal time.
“Harvest is a case of go hard for as long as it takes to get the crop in.
“On average our casual workers put in 55 to 60 hours a week.
“I’ve got 100 out in the field now.
“I’ve got the last fortnight’s wages bill in front of me and if I had to pay overtime, even at the negotiated down rate, it would add probably 30 per cent to my wages bill – our biggest cost of production.
“That’s another $75,000 a fortnight so it’s not chump change.”
Mr Good, WA’s representative on Apple and Pear Australia Ltd (APAL), the non-profit national body representing commercial apple and pear growers, said none of the fruit and vegetable growers he had spoken to were aware of the changes proposed to the award by the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
He has spoken to State Warren Blackwood MLA Terry Redman and Federal Forrest MP Nola Marino who had asked him to supply them with details.
“Negotiations have been happening behind closed doors so no one knows about it,” Mr Good said.
“The Fair Work Commission is about to torpedo Australia’s fresh fruit and vegetable industry and no one knows about it – that’s the frightening bit.”
Mr Good said he was aware APAL had opposed the move before the FWC.
The board of AUSVEG, which represents vegetable and potato growers, is understood to have been split on the issue after heated debate whether to back a National Farmers Federation (NFF) negotiated outcome last week.
Comment was sought from AUSVEG but it was unable to respond before Farm Weekly went to press.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) in an interim decision last year proposed bringing casual workers employed under the horticulture award into line with their full-time and permanent part-time counterparts in terms of an overtime payment rate when they worked more than 38 hours a week.
The award covers employees in all horticulture sectors, apart from winery workers and sugar cane cutters, but currently does not specify ‘normal’ working hours for casual employees or an overtime rate for them.
In its interim decision, the FWC proposed introducing 6am-6pm as the ‘normal’ spread of working hours for casual horticultural workers with no distinction for Saturday and Sunday work.
It also proposed introducing a 50pc overtime loading if casual employees worked more than 38 hours a week within that normal spread of working hours.
In some circumstances outside of the normal spread of hours a 100pc overtime rate would apply.
The National Farmers Federation (NFF) has been negotiating since then with the FWC to try to have changes incorporated into the overtime proposal for casual workers when the final decision is brought down.
Some in the industry believe that may be by July 1 when pay rates under the award are due to change, but technically new pay rates and the provision of overtime to casual workers are not linked.
Ben Rogers, NFF general manager workplace relations and legal affairs, said negotiations so far had secured agreement on a “wider” spread of normal hours, now 5am-8.30pm to give growers “more flexibility”.
Mr Rogers said at this stage, subject to the FWC’s final decision, the overtime rate had been negotiated down to 15pc after more than 38 hours within the normal hours spread.
But once a casual employee worked more than 12 hours a day the overtime rate increased to 50pc, Mr Rogers said.
There were also circumstances where hours worked could be averaged over eight weeks to determine whether overtime was paid at 15pc or 50pc, he said, and an overtime rate of an extra 100pc could still apply in some situations.
The proposed overtime changes would not apply to workers employed on piece rates or where workers were already covered by a business-wide enterprise bargaining agreement.
Mr Rogers said the FWC’s interim decision was in response to submissions made to a four-year review of the Horticulture Award by unions and the Fair Work Ombudsman supporting overtime entitlements for casual workers being introduced in line with those of full-time and permanent part-time employees.
The NFF had made a submission opposing the move, he said.
“Our members are not happy about it (the probability of having to pay overtime to casual workers), but they accept that the negotiations for a wider spread of hours and reduced overtime rate is the best outcome they are going to get,” Mr Rogers said.
“It’s the lesser of two evils.
“We have asked for a very long lead-in time because it will have a big impact on growers.”
Mr Rogers said it was not known when the FWC would bring down its final decision.
Currently the hourly base rate for casual adult horticulture workers ranges from $22.86 to $26.61 an hour depending on training, skills levels, type of work being undertaken and level of responsibility.
These rates include a 25pc casual loading in lieu of annual leave, personal or carer’s leave, termination notice, redundancy benefits or other entitlements of full-time or part-time employment.
Hourly penalty rates of 80pc in addition to the base rate apply for working on public holidays or working through a meal break.
