A new report has warned of widespread exploitation of migrant workers in the horticulture industry, with some earning less than $2 an hour.
The Unions NSW report reviewed more than 1,000 job advertisements for entry level farm work and conducted interviews with Australian and temporary-migrant workers.
The report has been released after the federal government abandoned a crackdown on wage theft as part of its industrial relations policy, which Labor said was a "petulant" act of "vindictiveness".
The report warns of worker mistreatment including manipulation of piece rates to bypass minimum wages, workers being forced to accept substandard accommodation, and even some workers suffering sexual and racial abuse.
Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said that, at the extremes, people were being paid less than $2 an hour.
"This is a national disgrace," he told reporters on Friday.
"Australia is better than this. Farmers need to be better than this."
The lowest hourly rates earned by workers were as little as $1.25 an hour, according to the report.
Secretary of Unions NSW Mark Morey. Source: AAP
Xueliang Wang - a migrant from China - said he worked on one farm where he received just $8 an hour, while working 12 hour days.
"Workers are not getting the treatment they deserve," he told reporters.
The report audited ads predominately in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean - with 88 per cent of these offered at a so-called piecework rate - or being paid for the amount picked.
The analysis suggested that 96 per cent of the piece rates advertised would not allow workers to earn the national minimum wage.
Migrant worker Xueliang Wang (r) speaks to media. Source: SBS News
It also found temporary migrant workers faced being abused or sacked if they complained about pay or conditions.
The report has been released
The government dropped a plan to criminalise wage theft - instead only passing limited changes to casual employment - after Labor, the Senate cross bench and unions opposed aspects of the bill.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese on Friday attended the release of the Unions NSW report into the horticulture industry.
"This isn't the Australian way. We need to do much, much better and we need to address this now," he told reporters.
He also lashed the Morrison government’s "petulant" handling of industrial relations reforms, including by dropping its plan to crackdown on wage theft.
Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese. Source: AAP
"We saw the government engaging in petulant and active vindictiveness because it couldn't get its wage cuts through the Senate," he told reporters.
"They got rid of the provisions that were supported by every senator and every member of the House of Representatives about wage theft.
"An extraordinary act from an immature government that is in chaos."
The reforms would have imposed criminal penalties of up to four years in prison for serious wage theft and new civil penalties of two or three times the amount of underpaid wages.
Acting Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash told the Senate on Thursday the stripped down bill would provide greater certainty for casuals and small business.
