"Foreign farm workers left with just $100 after week’s work as employer makes major deductions", 10 March 2022

One of Australia's largest labour hire firms oversaw foreign workers pocketing just $100 per week after it deducted hundreds of dollars in additional costs.

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Two Samoan whistleblowers have also told of how they felt "punished" for giving earlier evidence against the labour hire firm.

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Sunny Ridge's managing director Matthew Collard said Aleki's take home pay was significantly reduced when the labour hire firm MADEC deducted several costs.

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Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, who chaired the hearing, likened the final payment to earning about $3 per hour.

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MADEC's chief executive Laurence Burt told the hearing that costs were recovered for several reasons.

"In the first ten weeks of someone's arrival into Australia on the seasonal worker program they work through a process of paying for the international airfare, visa costs, cash advance and other on-arrival expenses … that's spread across the first initial weeks of engagement and recovered on a weekly basis," Mr Burt said.

"In addition to that, there are weekly living costs such as accommodation, transport, and health insurance that are also recovered out of workers' salaries each week by their approved employer as well."

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