The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU)’s most recent campaign calls for Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme workers to receive a minimum payment after deductions of $250 per week. The AWU proposes that any outstanding deductions should be carried forward until workers are earning enough to cover them. This is in the wake of several reports of workers receiving low income after deductions, with not much left to support themselves or their families at the end of low weeks.
MADEC, one of the largest employers of Pacific seasonal workers, has lifted its minimum weekly payment to $200 per week after being implicated in the Select Committee on Job Security.
The main representative body for PALM scheme employers, the association of Approved Employers in Australia (AEA), also supports a post-deduction wage safety net. In its recent letter to the incoming government, the AEA highlighted that this measure would ‘ensure that per pay period, workers are not left with an insufficient income after deduction’.
Employer support is important, as they would be the ones to pay more upfront and carry the deductions forward, as a commitment to their workers’ welfare. On the wages front, it seems relatively straightforward too.
The hourly rate for casual fruit and vegetable pickers is now $26.73 per hour, and anyone working on piece rates must earn at least 15 per cent more than this minimum threshold.
Pacific seasonal workers have a minimum average of 30 hours of work per week for the duration of their contract, and on this new hourly rate will earn on average $1363 per fortnight post-tax.
A weekly guarantee of $250 would be only 37 per cent of a worker’s expected post-tax earnings. For Pacific Labour Scheme workers on full-time contracts, their wages don’t have the same level of seasonal variability, and it should be less of an issue.
Source: fijitimes.com