Employer claims 'administrative and clerical oversight'
A labour-hire company in Far North Queensland has been hit with a court penalty of $106,430.63 for underpaying vulnerable visa holders working on farms.
Before a federal court, NQ Powertrain Pty Ltd admitted to breaching workplace laws by underpaying 87 visa holders a total of $49,933 between December 2018 and May 2020.
The company reportedly deducted more than the legally allowed amount from the workers' wages for accommodation and transport costs, resulting in the underpayment of their entitlements under the Horticulture Award 2010.
Investigations of non-compliance
NQ Powertrain hired workers from countries like Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands through the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) and Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP).
These workers were then provided to farms near Cairns, including Innisfail, Tolga, Walkamin, Mareeba, Upper Daradgee, and Mourilyan.
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) investigated NQ Powertrain following reports of possible non-compliance from the Queensland Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit and the Commonwealth Government departments overseeing the PLS and SWP.
The workers were responsible for tasks such as picking, sorting, and packing fruits and vegetables, as well as performing general labour and housekeeping duties on farms.
‘Administrative, clerical oversight’
In its decision, the court noted the written submissions of the employer’s director and secretary Peta Kasey Rudd.
Rudd said “the contraventions arose by reason of a lack of proper administrative/clerical oversight, and not by reason of any intentional design. “
“I have always been and remain a passionate advocate of the Pacific labour mobility schemes. In particular, I am incredibly proud of the opportunities I provided women – helping them to take control of their financial security and their children's education. This goal has always been one of my principal drivers for operating NQP,” she said.
“I was ‘mum’ to many of them, and my job was to protect them while they were in Australia and ensure they were paid correctly and provided with safe, clean and comfortable accommodation. I am incredibly remorseful, and disappointed in myself, that some workers were not paid correctly by NQP,” Rudd added.
She further wrote that “seeing [her] name and face in The Courier Mail reported as someone who has ‘stolen’ money off these workers” was “devastating” for her.
“I had personal relationships with most of the employees who were the subject of the FWO investigation as they were some of my team members who had returned more than once to work for NQP across the years – most had been to my house and knew my husband and children.”
“[I hope they] can accept that these shortcomings were never intentional, nor did they result in a windfall for NQP in circumstances where our model was to simply pass the labour costs on to the host firm,” Rudd said.
Unlawful deductions
The majority of the underpayment, totaling over $42,000, was a result of NQ Powertrain unlawfully deducting accommodation costs from the workers' wages. This accommodation was provided either at a boarding house in Mareeba or a farmhouse in Tolga.
The deductions made by NQ Powertrain were deemed unlawful as they went beyond the actual amount paid for the accommodation. Inspectors discovered over a dozen cases where NQ Powertrain deducted over $1000 more from a worker's wages than necessary to cover their accommodation expenses.
In violation of the Fair Work Act and the Horticulture Award 2010, NQ Powertrain illegally deducted $3,100 from employees' salaries for airport transportation expenses. Additionally, they failed to adequately compensate workers for Sunday overtime, time-off-in-lieu entitlements, and minimum-engagement pay. The individual underpayments ranged from $17 to $2,041.
However, after an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), NQ Powertrain rectified the underpayments in full. It is worth noting that the company ceased trading in 2022.
