An eastern Victorian vegetable farm will face court early next year accused of underpaying 28 migrant workers more than $645,000. Bulmers Farms produces lettuce, spinach and broccoli at Lindenow in East Gippsland, about three hours east of Melbourne.
The company is owned by Bill Bulmer, the Victorian chair of the peak industry body, Ausveg. Founded in 1989, it employs 120 people during peak periods. The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges the company breached the Fair Work Act by paying workers a set weekly amount based on annual salaries, regardless of the number of hours they worked.
The workers from Kiribati, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands were hired under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme and worked in a range of roles, including as farm workers, forklift drivers and tractor operators.
The ombudsman said individual workers were underpaid amounts ranging between $1,500 and $39,000. The underpayments allegedly occurred between December 2019 and December 2023. The ombudsman says the workers were paid between $884 and $1,105 per week for a 38-hour week, but more than half the time were required to work additional hours.
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