Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 (No. 99) - Australia (Ratification: 1969)

Article 1(1) of the Convention. Minimum wage system. The Committee notes the adoption and entry into force of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Fair Work Act), which repeals and replaces the Workplace Relations Act 1996. It also notes the establishment of Fair Work Australia, and of the Minimum Wage Panel, which replaces the Fair Pay Commission as the specialist body responsible for annually reviewing and setting minimum wages. The Committee further notes that as from January 2010, minimum wages for the agricultural industry are set out in modern awards that cover particular sectors, and that each modern award includes the minimum wages for each classification of employee covered by the award. In this respect, the Committee notes the Pastoral Award 2010, the Horticulture Award 2010, the Wine Industry Award 2010, the Wool Storage Sampling and Testing Award 2010, the Sugar Industry Award 2010, and the Poultry Processing Award 2010, as well as the Government’s indication that the Horticulture and the Wine Industry Awards contain arrangements for employees to be engaged as pieceworkers as an alternative to receiving a basic rate of pay per hour of work, with rates fixed by agreements between the employer and the employee which must enable the average competent employee to earn at least 15 per cent more per hour than the minimum hourly rate. The Committee requests the Government to provide in future reports information on the implementation of the Fair Work Act and the revision of the various minimum wage-fixing awards in the agricultural sector.

Article 5 and Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes the statistical information contained in the Government’s report, in particular the number of employees engaged in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry as of May 2011, and the results of labour inspection services conducted by the Fair Work Ombudsman in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry in the 2009–10 financial year, including the number of complaints received, the amounts of money recovered and the number of employees paid. The Committee requests that the Government continue to supply up-to-date information on these matters.

In addition, the Committee requests the Government to refer to the comments made under the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131).