The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured a total of $75,600 in court penalties against a labour hire company operating in NSW’s horticulture industry and the company’s director for breaches affecting two migrant fruit pickers.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court has imposed a $63,000 penalty against Four Seasons Workforce Pty Ltd and a $12,600 penalty against the company’s sole director, Pik Yok Chey.
The penalties were imposed in response to Four Seasons Workforce breaching workplace laws by failing to comply with two Compliance Notices issued by the Fair Work Ombudsman that required the company to back-pay entitlements owing to two migrant workers it had supplied to pick blueberries on farms in the Coffs Harbour region.
Ms Chey was involved in the breaches.
The workers, who were in Australia on working holiday visas, included a Japanese worker who Four Seasons Workforce employed between July and November 2023 and a Chinese worker the company employed between June and October 2024.
The Compliance Notices required Four Seasons Workforce to calculate what they owed the workers and make back-payments within a required timeframe. The company however paid the amount owed, $14,038, only after the Fair Work Ombudsman commenced legal action.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said employers that failed to act on Compliance Notices needed to be aware they could face court-imposed penalties on top of having to pay workers.
“Improving compliance in the horticulture sector and taking action to protect migrant workers are priorities for the Fair Work Ombudsman. Where employers do not comply, including with Compliance Notices, we will take appropriate action to protect employees,” Ms Booth said.
“The amounts the workers were owed under the Compliance Notices in this case were significant. All employers, including labour hire providers, need to ensure any pieceworkers they engage receive at least the guaranteed minimum rate for each day worked.
“Migrant workers can be assured they have the same rights and protections under the Fair Work Act as other employees in Australia, and protections exist for their visa if they call out any breaches.
“Any employees with concerns about their pay or entitlements should contact us for free advice and assistance. They can also contact their union if they are a member.”
Ms Booth said the Fair Work Ombudsman had written to growers that engaged Four Seasons Workforce to notify them, prior to the penalty judgment, of the alleged non-compliance within their supply chains.
The Fair Work Ombudsman investigated Four Seasons Workforce after receiving requests for assistance from the affected workers.
A Fair Work Inspector formed a belief that Four Seasons Workforce had paid the workers on a piecework basis according to the total weight of the blueberries they picked, and failed to comply with the requirement to pay them the Pieceworker Guaranteed Minimum Rate.
The guaranteed minimum rate requires pieceworkers to be paid, for each day worked as a pieceworker, no less than the minimum hourly rate for casual fruit pickers under the Horticulture Industry Award 2020 multiplied by the number of hours they worked each day.
The Inspector also formed a belief that the company had underpaid one of the worker’s public holiday rates under the Award.
The Inspector issued Compliance Notices to Four Seasons Workforce in May 2025 and September 2025.
Judge Robert Cameron found that the affected workers were vulnerable, the amounts that had been owing were of “real consequence” and that the workers were “denied the benefits of the amounts they should have been paid in wages for 20 and 31 months respectively”.
“They were employed as pieceworkers on temporary visas, had limited English language skills, were under the age of 30 during their employment and were vulnerable workers on that account,” Judge Cameron said.
His Honour found that the penalties imposed should “give pause for thought to others, particularly those in the horticultural industry, who might seek to disregard statutory notices”.
“As has been said many times, a penalty should be of a kind that would deter similar contraventions by like-minded persons or organisations. A failure to comply with a statutory notice is serious, and I accept the Ombudsman’s submission that the efficacy of statutory notices would be reduced or negatived if recipients perceived that a failure to comply carried no meaningful consequences,” Judge Cameron said.
The workers were back-paid more than $8,700 and more than $5,300 respectively.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has previously published that one of the workers, the Chinese national, encouraged visa holders who think they may be underpaid to speak up.
“If you need help, you can access people’s help. Don’t be afraid. Be brave”, the worker said.
