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Farmer in a blue over record keeping

berries, strawberry, blueberryA blueberry farmer who employed dozens of overseas backpackers to pick his crop is to face court for alleged serious record keeping failures.

Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors discovered the farmer only kept a record of the workers’ first names, and how many buckets they picked.

The alleged contraventions were identified during a spot check of the NSW mid north coast property last November.

The Sandy Beach farmer, Gurmakh Dosanjh, is to face the Federal Circuit Court in Sydney following legal proceedings initiated by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Fair Work inspectors randomly audited the Morgan’s Road blueberry farm as part of the Agency’s three year Harvest Trail project.

Most of the fruit pickers were young overseas backpackers in Australia on the 417 working holiday visa, many from non English speaking countries.

The majority had taken seasonal jobs in the horticulture industry in order to qualify for a 12 month extension to their visa.

Fair Work inspectors allege that the only record for 60 employees was a day book with the worker’s first name and the tally of buckets picked.

The Fair Work Ombudsman also alleges Dosanjh did not issue employees with payslips within one day of being paid, as required by workplace law, and failed to have written piecework agreements in place for employees who were paid per bucket.

Dosanjh faces a maximum penalty of up to $10,200 for failing to have written piecework agreements in place. He also faces a maximum penalty of $5100 each for three other alleged contraventions relating to record keeping and pay slips.

The Harvest Trail was launched in response to ongoing requests for assistance from employees in the horticulture sector and confusion among growers and labour-hire contractors about their workplace obligations.

In August last year, the Fair Work Ombudsman also commenced a national review of the wages and conditions of overseas workers in Australia on the 417 working holiday visa after receiving allegations that some unscrupulous operators were exploiting backpackers.

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