Analysing the Labour Challenges of Securing Food Production in Australian Horticulture
Food production and food security are of critical importance to economic and social development of all nations. However in many ways the workforce that sustains this sector is very poorly regulated and managed. Like many other countries, the horticulture industry in Australia relies heavily on migrant labour. Despite recent policy initiatives for locals and migrants to work in regional Australia, growers continue to attest to labour shortages. At the same time the industry is often accused of non-compliance with labour laws covering migrant workers. The morality of labour supply is extremely complex and operates at local, national and international levels. Given these conditions, this paper critically analyses the institutional and regulatory changes needed to improve working conditions and labour supply in this sector with reference to a large survey of employers and enterprise case studies.
Introduction
The horticulture industry produces 93% of the total volume of food consumed in Australia, contributes A$48.7 billion to GDP and supports an export market valued at A$32 billion per annum. Given that most work in the horticulture industry cannot be mechanised, growers depend on a reliable supply of productive manual labour to maintain this contribution. Due to this heavy reliance on manual workers for picking, packing and grading, growers in the industry have increasingly filled recruitment shortfalls through migration pathways.
Our research focuses directly on the complex relationship between economy and morality in the demand and supply of low skilled labour in the horticulture industry. The morality of labour supply operates at local, national and international levels. At the international level, there is a question of equality between migrant and domestic workers. Why should migrants be discriminated against and only be utilised when the domestic workforce is exhausted or be denied the opportunity to participate in a labour market with better wages and conditions than they experience at home?
At the national level there is more of a focus on the needs of local workers – to a decent wage, fair conditions of work and opportunties for quality employment. The ready availability of migrant workers potentially threatens the needs of local workers from one perspective but can also be seen to provide opportunities. From an industry perspective, there is the economic pressure and imperative to source cheap labour for industry survival. No one benefits from the industry failing and thus its economic viability provides another moral dimension. Then there are the more specific issues in relation to how labour supply is organised: the responsibility of employers and intermediaries, the freedom of workers to leave the employment relationship and the protection of vulnerable workers. The moral imperatives of free movement, freedom to choose work and the needs of industry thus intersect with other moral imperatives of human dignity in employment and the rights of local workers.
This paper analyses how labour supply needs in horticulture are being met and provides proposals for how these could be addressed more effectively to ensure the viability of the industry and the ethical protection of its workforce. Drawing upon survey data and enterprise case studies, this investigation provides the basis for recommendations for policy reform and theoretical advancement.
Identifying labour supply needs
Like many other countries, growers in Australia attest to an unwillingness of many local workers to undertake vegetable and fruit picking work (Hugo et al, 2015). However existing scholarship provides no clear picture of who is employed in this sector and what conditions they are employed under. Despite the importance of horticulture to social and economic development, there is a dearth of research analysing labour supply and workforce protection issues and an absence of comprehensive solutions to address these issues in a targeted manner.
These challenges are especially pertinent in Australia, where food production and food security have been flagged as priority policy issues. There are a range of ethical issues to be addressed in the use of a temporary migrant workforce in seasonal work which employers in horticulture rely upon extensively to meet labour needs (Reilly 2011). Contrary to its name, the Working Holiday visa, in particular, has become a de facto low skilled work visa (Howe and Reilly 2015), but there is no regulatory framework to protect migrants in horticultural work, with many instances of exploitation of these workers coming to light in recent years (ABC 2015). Additionally, there are an unknown number of undocumented workers in horticulture, many of them migrants without work rights (Clibborn 2015, Howell 2010, Underhill 2015).
Proposals for addressing labour supply needs more sustainably
There is an extensive international literature establishing the vulnerability of temporary migrant workers (Berg 2015, Crock et al 2014, Campbell and Tham 2013, Costello and Freedland 2014). The potential for exploitation is increased for low skilled migrant workers in situations of institutionalised dependence (Deegan 2008, Wright et al 2015), particularly those in horticulture industries (Wolfson et al 2012, Fudge 2012, Davies 2014). Horticultural work is physically demanding, often geographically isolated, and workers can be dependent on their employer for accommodation. Furthermore, the relationship between employers and workers is typically organised by intermediaries whose activities have proven difficult to regulate (Davies 2014, van den Broek et al 2014).
Even if it were possible to structurally design a regulatory framework to minimise the possibility of exploitation, there is the real risk that any in-built protections will be eroded over time through deregulation. As such there are many challenges in developing strategies for genuine labour supply solutions within the horticultural sector. There are few approaches to labour supply that can satisfy the range of moral positions. Regulation is therefore necessarily fraught and political, and yet undeniably necessary. Drawing upon a large survey of employers and enterprise case studies, this paper presents findings relating to the sustainability of labour supply in Australian horticulture that is especially pertinent given global population expansion and the resultant food sustainability and supply challenges in the sector.