'Australia's first' Pacific Labour Scheme employer fined $100,000 for wage theft

Based at Innisfail before closing last year, NQ Powertrain trading as Powertrac will have to pay $106,430 after admitting to underpaying dozens of visa holders working on farms in Far North Queensland.

Following a Fair Work Ombudsman investigation, last Friday the Federal Circuit and Family Court imposed the penalty for underpaying 87 visa holders a total of $49,933 between December 2018 and May 2020.

The company made deductions from the workers' wages for accommodation and transport costs that exceeded the maximum lawfully allowable and underpaid their entitlements under the award.

The workers, from countries including Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, picked, sorted and packed fruit and vegetables and performed general labouring and housekeeping tasks on farms.

Powerpac employed the workers under the then PLS and Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) and supplied them on an on-hire basis to farms near Cairns, including Innisfail, Tolga, Walkamin, Mareeba, Upper Daradgee and Mourilyan.

The SWP and PLS were then consolidated under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme in 2022.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said employers in the agriculture sector, including labour hire companies, that underpaid vulnerable workers risked facing significant consequences.

"Making unlawful deductions from workers' wages and failing to pay the correct minimum entitlements is unacceptable," Ms Parker said.

"Improving compliance in the agriculture sector and protecting vulnerable workers like visa holders, who may be unaware of their rights or unwilling to speak up, continue to be top priorities for the FWO."

The Federal Circuit and Family Court said it accepted the contraventions arose "by reason of a lack of proper administrative/clerical oversight, and not by reason of any intentional design".

The FWO investigated Powerpac after receiving reports of potential non-compliance from the Queensland Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit and the Commonwealth government departments administering the PLS and SWP.

Inspectors found more than a dozen instances of Powerpac deducting, in total, in excess of $1000 more from a worker's wages than was required to cover their accommodation costs.

Powerpac also unlawfully deducted $3100 from workers' wages for airport transport costs, in contravention of the Fair Work Act, and underpaid their Sunday overtime rates, time-off-in-lieu entitlements and minimum-engagement pay, under the Horticulture Award 2010.

Individual underpayments ranged from $17 to $2041.

Powerpac rectified the underpayments in full after the FWO investigated and the company ceased trading in 2022.

Powerpac director Peta Kasey Rudd said she was remorseful about the situation.

"I am incredibly remorseful, and disappointed in myself, that some workers were not paid correctly by NQP," she stated in court documents.

"... these shortcomings were never intentional, nor did they result in a windfall for NQP in circumstances where our model was to simply pass the labour costs on to the host firm.

"Nevertheless, I accept this is of no comfort to the workers affected and understand that NQP needs to take responsibility for this."

Ms Rudd said the case had left her reputation in tatters.

"... my reputation has been irreparably damaged, and I do not feel confident that I will ever be able to work in a management or leadership position again," she stated.

As of March, there were 431 employers approved within the scheme engaging over 37,000 workers, a majority of which were in the agriculture and horticulture sectors.

IN THE NEWS: