Backpackers are victims of rogue operators in the fruitpicking industry, writes Rick Feneley.
The pickers know him only as Max, but their stories are remarkably consistent. ''Pick faster,'' he screams. ''Hurry, pickers. Work with two hands. Faster, workers, or you won't be paid.''
''You feel like a slave,'' says Martin Pflaamenger, 22, a German backpacker.
He was one of several fruitpickers sacked while picking tomatoes on a farm near Bundaberg on February 16. The reason? They had pleaded for water after hours in the intense Queensland sun. Mehmet ''Max'' Tosun sacked them on the spot.
Only three months ago another German backpacker, Jessica Pera, 24, collapsed and died while working on a nearby farm. The coroner is investigating dehydration or heat exhaustion as possible causes of death. By all accounts to the Herald, that farm takes good care of workers. It insists they drink plenty of water.
The same cannot be said for the way Tosun does business. He and his wife, Calie, are a formidable team in Bundaberg. He is 27, she 23. Since October they have been running East Bundy Backpackers - a source of labour for Max's other business. He is a labour hire contractor for farms, which need a constant supply of fruitpickers.
Tosun and his wife, known as ''Kelly'', have refused to answer the Herald's questions concerning allegations it has gathered from seven backpackers over three weeks. But when the local newspaper ran similar claims by other backpackers this week, Calie Tosun, formerly Unwin, was quoted as saying: "I've heard people complain about the work, but if they don't like it they can leave." Her husband disputed many of the claims, but said he had to yell to make pickers work. "They need to be told what to do.''
They have only days to get their ''house in order'', says Queensland's Workplace Rights Ombudsman, Don Brown. He will not discuss individual cases, but he is sending his team to Bundaberg to investigate the industry - yet again. ''We intend to name and shame, and to refer people for prosecution where required,'' Brown told the Herald.
The federal Fair Work Ombudsman has ''serious concerns'' and has begun a separate inquiry.
Bundaberg is familiar with this sort of controversy. The mayor, Lorraine Pyefinch, other hostel operators and farmers are tired of rogue operators. They have been working hard to clean up the industry's image. Adding to their sensitivity is the coming 10th anniversary of a tragedy in nearby Childers in which 15 died in a fire at the Palace Backpackers Hostel.
''This area is entirely dependent on seasonal workers, and particularly backpackers, for our agricultural and horticultural industry,'' Pyefinch says. ''It's the backbone of our economy … In Bundaberg alone, at any one time, there's a thousand registered beds. You can double or triple that in the peak picking season - and they're the unregistered ones.''
Many backpackers go there to fulfil a requirement for a second-year holiday working visa: 88 days of fruitpicking. But Daniel Stockwell, 27, from England, has gone home, broke, having lasted one day as a picker under Max Tosun.
''I love Australia,'' Stockwell says, ''but this just killed it.''
He was sacked on February 16 with his English friend Oliver Brown, 24, Martin Pflaamenger, another German and an Australian. They woke at 3am, but there was no room on the first bus so they caught the second at 5.30am. They were lured by $17.60 an hour. ''But when we got there we heard that had changed,'' Stockwell says. ''We'd be getting paid $1.80 per bucket … I'd been picking for an hour and I'd hardly got one bucket.''
They moved to another field. After 2½ hours they were ''gagging for water''. After three hours, Brown says, he had picked eight buckets of tomatoes. ''You can do the sums.'' Thus far: $14.40.
Workers are unable to carry their own water bottles while picking. They asked for water but none came. Some sat down, refusing to work. ''How can we work without water?'' Stockwell asked.
Tosun bid them farewell. Back at the hostel they were given one hour to leave. Signs warned that only working fruitpickers could stay at the hostel. The group protested that they had paid $160 in advance for a week's accommodation. They said they called in the police, who told them it was a civil matter and they must leave. They left with no pay and no refund.
Yesterday the owner of the farm, SP Exports, terminated its contract with Tosun. Its investigations had revealed ''considerable substance to the allegations'', said its managing director, Andrew Philip. ''We employ 300 and it is certainly not the way we treat them or how we expect people to be treated.''
A spokesman for the Fair Work Ombudsman said piece rates could only be paid if a worker received at least the federal minimum wage for every hour worked, now $14.31.
John Walker, who runs the Bundaberg Workers and Divers Hostel, estimates the illegal industry in Bundaberg is at least twice as big as the legal one. But he believes the state ombudsman is missing the point attacking hostels and growers. ''He is tarnishing the whole industry while failing to target the real culprits - the labor hire contractors.''
Don Brown, the ombudsman, says: ''The bad name earned for the region through backpackers would definitely be causing Australia, and particularly Queensland, tourist dollars.''
Mayor Pyefinch worries that, with the internet, ''we're responding to a network of opinion that's available all around the world''.
Oliver Brown is part of that network. He checked his bank account this week to discover that he and Daniel Stockwell had finally been paid. ''I got $20.36 for a day's work. Daniel got $9.60 for exactly the same work.''
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