Labour hire licensing compliance unit (LHLCU) inspectors joined colleagues from the agricultural unit to conduct field visits at farms in Bundaberg and surrounding regions.
Across three days in September, inspectors attended 12 locations and spoke with growers and their representatives, as well as labour hire workers and their supervisors.
The visits gave LHLCU inspectors the opportunity to engage with growers in the region, and provide further awareness and education on the labour hire licensing scheme, and best practice guidance in relation to engaging labour hire providers.
Overall, growers appeared to have a good level of awareness of the purpose and importance of the scheme, and a number were able to discuss steps they were taking to ensure they can identify situations where workers could be potentially exploited by a non-compliant labour hire provider. In terms of labour hire licensing, no instances of non-compliance were detected on the visits.
Having work health and safety inspectors conducting their own safety inspections during the visit enabled a collaborative approach to ensuring workers in the industry are safe in their workplace and protected from exploitation.
On the third day of the trip to the region, LHLCU inspectors attended the ‘Agrotrend’ event as a further opportunity to engage with the Bundaberg community.
During the event, inspectors also attended a work health and safety workshop presented by the Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, featuring presentations by IPaM (Injury Prevention and Management program), the Office of Industrial Relations and WorkCover Queensland.
The LHLCU addressed workshop participants to provide further awareness on the labour hire licensing scheme.
