Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman has secured an AUD 166,860 (USD 112,866) in court-ordered penalties against one of Australia’s largest celery producers for underpaying vulnerable migrant employees more than AUD 91,000 (USD 61,553).

The Federal Circuit and Family Court imposed the penalties against A & G Lamattina & Sons Pty Ltd (Lamattina), whose farm is at Boneo on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Lamattina breached the Fair Work Act after it underpaid employees and failed to pay them in full and at least monthly between February 2020 and February 2021. It failed to pay minimum wages, casual loading, overtime and public holiday rates owed under the Horticulture Awards 2010 and 2020.

The Court found the conduct was deliberate.

The Ombudsman investigated the company after receiving requests for assistance from three farmhands, each visa holders, who had not been paid any wages during extended periods of their employment.

Despite raising concerns about their pay with their employer, one of the farmhands was only paid for 10 of the 52 weeks of work; another only six out of 36 weeks worked; and the third only eight out of 41 weeks worked.

The three employees were underpaid AUD 91,907 (USD 62,167) between them in the course of a year: one of them more than AUD 37,000 (USD 25,027) and the other two more than AUD 27,000 (USD 18,263) each.

The farmhands are from non-English speaking backgrounds – they speak Indonesian and Malay – and held bridging visas when employed by Lamattina. They performed tasks such as planting, picking and cutting celery on a casual basis.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth condemned the breaches.

“The conduct by the employer in this case was appalling, and I believe supermarket shoppers would be dismayed to know their Lamattina celery was grown by workers deprived of such large sums of their hard-earned wages,” Booth said in a press release. “We don’t tolerate the exploitation of migrant workers, who have the same rights in Australia as any other workers. Protecting their workplace rights is an ongoing priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman.”

In imposing the penalties, Judge Karl Blake considered the employees’ losses to be significant and stated they were vulnerable employees “…exploited or taken advantage of by their employer”.

Blake noted the extended period of time over which the contraventions had occurred; the significant sums of the underpayments; Lamattina’s lack of remorse and the employer having taken no steps to prevent contraventions in the future, plus its lack of cooperation with the regulator.

Lamattina rectified the underpayments in full in February 2023 – at least two years after the relevant work period.