The Australia Workers Union, ACTU and the Federal Government have been criticized by Australian fruit growers for making changes to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme. Under the PALM scheme, workers from Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste are employed on farms during fruit picking seasons for three months.
However, recent changes to the scheme include the requirement for Pacific workers to be given a minimum of 30 hours and $200 per week, and scraps the previous flexibility of averaging the minimum work across eight weeks. According to fruit growers, the scheme does not recognize the influence of regular weekly rain on harvests, which can limit working hours to less than 30.
Citrus Australia said the PALM scheme was “set to plummet” in popularity with Australia’s horticulture industry.
Federal Shadow Agriculture Minister David Littleproud described the new rules as ‘near impossible’. “Common sense tells you the costs on our farmers created by Labor will result in increased costs on food for families,” Littleproud said.
Source: sheppnews.com.au