New guidelines to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme being introduced by the federal government will effectively make it more difficult for many farmers to employ workers via the scheme. As industry continues to be challenged by a crippling labour shortage, details around the changes to the PALM scheme are very concerning.
The changes are part of the government's plan to expand the PALM scheme, merging the former Pacific Labour Scheme and the Seasonal Worker Program.
Under the current scheme, hours of employment can be averaged over the duration of an employment contract, typically nine months for short-term farm workers. The new guidelines, which will be introduced from July 2024, will see employers no longer able to average the hours and instead they will have to guarantee a minimum of 30 hours of work each week.
QFF joins our members, the Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers, in expressing our concerns about the potential unintended consequences these changes will have for many farming employers, making it more difficult to employ workers via the scheme.
In spite of just about every peak body across Australia raising these concerns about the introduction of a guaranteed 30-hour week for PALM workers, the government and the unions have decided to proceed in any case. It has been disappointing to hear Australian Workers' Union representatives describe industry's genuine concerns as hysteria, and it is incredibly disheartening to see the lack of meaningful engagement with industry on these important issues.
The core purpose of the scheme is to meet the long-term interests of the Pacific and Australian industries that it has been set up to serve. If it is unable to achieve this outcome, then it is no longer serving the purpose for which it was established.
This new approach will effectively increase the administrative burden on compliant employers and lock small business and many farmers out of the scheme. A better approach would be to instead enforce existing standards within the PALM scheme by stamping out rogue labour hire employers and penalising employers who engage PALM workers outside of the program guidelines.
The PALM scheme has the potential to play a significant role in our labour supply mix and in Australia's relationship with the Pacific. It is too important to fail. Farmers are challenged by seasonal variability which is out of their control and sometimes makes it physically impossible to work for various periods of time. As a result, many farmers need flexibility in their workforce arrangements.
What a travesty it will be if farmers are pushed away from PALM, a regulated visa program, and forced to look for other workforce solutions. QFF joins QFVG in encouraging all impacted parties, growers and workers alike, to write formally to the government to clearly articulate their concerns and the potential unintended consequences of these proposed changes. It might be worth cc'ing the Australian Council of Trade Unions as it appears they are calling the shots on this one.
