Thu, 29 Oct 2015Australian poultry processing company Baiada has made an agreement with the country’s Fair Work Ombudsman to help stop worker exploitation at its site.

The company has agreed to a proactive compliance partnership with the state-run ombudsman’s office to make good past underpayments by contractors and to continue to implement changes to ensure it complies with workplace laws, according to an ombudsman statement.

The partnership comes in the wake of a report on the employment practices of Baiada contractors, which included non-compliance with employment law and exploitation of predominantly overseas workers. 

Exploitation included significant underpayments, extremely long hours of work, high rents for overcrowded and unsafe worker accommodation, discrimination, and misclassifying employees as contractors.

Baiada is to set aside AUS$500k (£232k) to reimburse current and former workers found to have been underpaid this year.