Worker safety

How to know a job is a good one

Most regional employers follow the law. They pay the correct rate. They put the offer in writing. They want you to know your rights.

What a good job includes

Before you start work, you should have most of these things.

• —The offer in writing. It should give the pay rate, the hours, the start date, the location, and the name of your employer. A text message is enough.
• —A clear answer about who employs you. On some farms the farmer is the host and a labour hire company pays you. Both have legal duties. You need to know which business pays you.
• —A business you can check. Search the ABN yourself. Check that the business name is the same as the name of the person hiring you. We check that the ABN is active. We cannot check that the person who contacts you is who they say they are.
• —No payment from you. You should not pay a placement fee. You should not pay a deposit for accommodation you have not seen. You should not pay for a promise of 88 days. Being asked to pay for a job is a warning sign. A genuine employer will not ask.
• —Real work days. A good employer signs for the days you worked. They will not offer you days you did not work. That offer is fraud, and the risk is to your visa, not theirs.

If some of these are missing, ask the employer about it before you accept the job.

What you must be paid

Your pay does not depend on your visa. A working holiday maker must be paid the same minimum rate as an Australian doing the same job. A contract cannot change this.

This is the lowest legal rate for work that no award covers. Most regional work is covered by an award, and award rates are usually higher.

Picking, packing, pruning and grading are usually covered by the Horticulture Award. That award sets its own minimum rate for each classification level. Vineyard work may be covered by the Wine Award instead. Rates change every 1 July. Your rate depends on your level and on whether you are casual.

Check your own rate. The Fair Work Ombudsman has a free Pay and Conditions Tool. It takes about two minutes.

You should also receive:

• —A payslip for every pay. It must show your hours, your rate, and any deductions.
• —Superannuation. Your employer pays this in addition to your wages. It is not taken out of your wages.
• —Penalty rates for weekends, public holidays and overtime. This depends on your award.
• —Payment for all the work you do. This includes time you spend on other tasks, not only the task you are paid a piece rate for.

If you are paid a piece rate

A piece rate means you are paid for each bin, tray, bucket or kilogram instead of for each hour. Piece rates are legal and they are common during harvest. A fast picker can earn well.

Since April 2022 there is also a minimum. This rule is the most important one to understand.

If your piece rate earnings are lower than that, your employer must pay you the difference. If your piece rate earnings are higher, you keep the higher amount. This is calculated separately for each day. A slow day and a fast day are not averaged together.

The other rules:

• —You should have a written piecework agreement before you start.
• —There is no lower rate for beginners or for training. A worker on their first day is paid the same rate as an experienced worker.
• —The rate must be set so that a competent worker earns at least 15% more per hour than the minimum hourly rate for their level.
• —After three months of experience you move to a higher classification level. That means a higher minimum rate.
• —Keep your own record of the hours you work and the units you pick. Good employers keep these records too, because the award requires it. Comparing your record with theirs is normal.

If accommodation is part of the job

Accommodation on a farm is common in regional work, and it is often the reason the job is possible. A few things are worth knowing.

• —If your employer takes rent out of your pay, you must agree in writing. The amount must be reasonable for what you receive.
• —You choose whether to stay in employer accommodation. It must not be a condition of keeping the job.
• —Check the basics before you move in: smoke alarms that work, a clear way out, somewhere to lock your belongings, a proper bed, and safe drinking water.
• —Keep your own passport. No employer has any right to hold it.
• —If the price seems very low once you add meals and bills, check your payslip carefully. Sometimes the cost is taken out of your pay in another way.

Staying safe at work

You have the same work health and safety rights as any other worker, from your first hour on site. Most employers take this seriously. It is their legal responsibility as well as your safety.

• —Training before you use machinery. This includes quad bikes, tractors, ladders, packing lines and chemicals.
• —Protective equipment provided by your employer. You should not have to buy it.
• —Heat is the most likely danger. The signs of heat stress are headache, nausea, dizziness, cramps, confusion, and no longer sweating. Tell your supervisor as soon as you feel unwell. A good supervisor wants you to stop early.
• —You can refuse work that puts you in an immediate danger. This is a legal right.
• —If you are injured, report it and see a doctor the same day. Workers compensation usually applies whatever visa you hold.
• —Tell someone where you are going. Some properties are an hour from a sealed road and have no phone signal.

Your 88 days

If you are working towards a second or third year visa, the days must be genuine. This protects you more than anyone else.

• —Keep your own records as you work: the dates, the hours, the employer business name and ABN, and every payslip. Home Affairs may ask you for evidence, and it is very hard to collect this after you leave the farm.
• —Whether your work counts depends on three things: where you did it, what kind of work it was, and which visa you hold. Our 88 Days Checker tells you what a postcode means. Home Affairs makes the final decision.
• —Unpaid work does not count towards your days. No employer should offer it as if it does.
• —An employer cannot give you days you did not work. If one offers, the risk is to your visa.

If something is wrong

Your employer cannot cancel your visa. Only the Department of Home Affairs can grant, refuse or cancel a visa. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to frighten you.

It is also illegal for an employer to dismiss you, reduce your shifts, or punish you in any other way because you asked a question about your pay.

Most problems are honest mistakes: the wrong classification level, a missing payment, an error in payroll. Most are fixed when you ask. Ask your employer first, and bring your own record of hours. This usually solves the problem in one conversation.

If asking does not fix it, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman. The service is free and independent, and it has information in many languages. You can make an anonymous report. You do not need your documents in order to ask a question.

Many people worry about one thing: will reporting a problem put my own visa at risk, if I have broken a visa condition myself?

The Australian Government runs two programs for this situation. They are the Strengthening Reporting Protections Pilot and the Workplace Justice Visa Pilot. Home Affairs administers both. Under the reporting protections pilot, Home Affairs will not cancel your visa for breaking a work-related condition if you meet the eligibility criteria. One of those criteria is that you are pursuing a workplace exploitation matter. These programs replace an earlier arrangement called the Assurance Protocol, which is paused while the pilots run.

The details matter and the rules change. Get advice from the Fair Work Ombudsman, a union, or a community legal centre before you decide what to do. Do not stay silent because you expect the worst.

Tell us

If an employer on RegionaLink is not doing the right thing, we want to know.

Report an employer

We read every report. We may pause an employer's listings while we look into it. We are not a regulator and we cannot recover unpaid wages for you. For that, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman, which is free and independent, and worth contacting whether or not you also tell us. But we check the employers on this site, and if one of them treats a worker badly, that is our problem too.

Who to contact

• —In an emergency, or if you are in immediate danger — call 000.
• —Fair Work Ombudsman — fairwork.gov.au. Free advice, translated information, anonymous reporting, and the Pay and Conditions Tool for checking your rate.
• —Department of Home Affairs — for anything about your visa itself, including the reporting protection pilots.
• —Your state or territory work health and safety regulator — for unsafe work.
• —RegionaLink — use the report link above for anything about an employer you found here.