An Australian fruit-growing company has signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman to improve its workplace compliance after it made unlawful wage deductions of nearly AUD 127,000 (USD 80,147) from 112 employees.

The affected employees were employed on a casual basis as fruit pickers, with 39 of the underpaid employees being on working holiday visas.

R J Cornish grows peaches, pears, apples, lemons and oranges at two orchards in Cobram and Muckatah, in north-east Victoria, for suppliers and the fresh fruit market.

In March 2024, Fair Work Inspectors visited R J Cornish as part of the Fair Work Ombudsman’s nationwide surprise inspections of farms and orchards to check workers are receiving the right wages and entitlements.

Inspectors found the company had made unlawful deductions from employees’ wages between July 2017 and June 2024. The company has admitted that it failed to pay current and former employees in full, by wrongly deducting AUD 126,859 (USD 80,058) from their wages, for the hire of power ladders used in fruit-picking (AUD 85,953 or USD 54,235), fuel related to the power ladders (AUD 40,556 (USD 25,585), and sprinkler damage (AUD 350 or USD 220).

The deductions were not permitted by the Fair Work Act as they were not principally for the benefit of the employees and were not otherwise lawfully authorised. R J Cornish has ceased making such deductions.

The company has made almost all back payments, with AUD 123,249 (USD 77,754) back-paid to 108 current and former employees. Individual back-payments owed ranged from AUD 21 to AUD 9,881 (USD 13 to USD 6,233), with the average being AUD 1,132 (USD 714).

Under the EU, R J Cornish must back-pay the remaining AUD 3,610 (USD 2,277) for four employees, who have not yet been able to be located, by making an application to pay the monies into the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The company will also make an AUD 5,500 (USD 3,469) contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund. It must also engage an independent auditor to check that workers are receiving their correct pay and entitlements under the Horticulture Award 2020.

“In this matter, we welcome the company’s cooperation with our investigation, and their commitment to both rectify the deduction amounts in full and put in place a range of measures to ensure current and future hard-working employees are paid everything they are owed,” Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said in a press release.