Monday 4th May 2015

Slaving away: The dirty secrets behind Australia's fresh food.

It's in your fridge and on your table: the fresh food that we take for granted.

But there's a dirty secret behind it.

Much of it is picked and packed by a hidden army of migrant workers who are ruthlessly exploited.

"There is slave labour in this country." - Queensland grower

A Four Corners investigation has uncovered gangs of black market workers run by unscrupulous labour hire contractors operating on farms and in factories around the country.

The produce they supply ends up in our major supermarkets and fast food chains.

"Almost every fresh product that you pick up... will have passed through the hands of workers who have been fundamentally exploited." - Union official

These labour hire contractors prey upon highly vulnerable young foreigners, many with very limited English, who have come to Australia with dreams of working in a fair country.

They're subjected to brutal working hours, degrading living conditions and the massive underpayment of wages.

Reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna has obtained undercover footage and on-camera accounts of this dark world. One migrant worker told her:

"I felt like we were going back in time... the way we were being treated was inhumane."

And another:

"It made me question Australia as a country."

Female workers are particularly at risk with women coming forward to make allegations of harassment and assault.

From farmers' fields to factory floors, the program tells the story of those workers who slave away to produce the food we buy and eat on a daily basis.

SLAVING AWAY, reported by Caro Meldrum-Hanna and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 4th May at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 5th May at 10.00am and Wednesday 6th at midnight. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: The dirty secrets behind the fresh food in our supermarkets and fast food outlets.

KEITH PITT, NATIONALS MP, FED. MEMBER FOR HINKLER: There is slave labour in this country. It's something we need to get rid of; that we need to address it and we need to do it soon.

KATIE, 417 VISA WORKER: Two weeks, no pay? Come on. Come on.

417 VISA WORKER 2: Yes! I want my money.

KATIE: Your workers aren't getting paid.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA, REPORTER: Did you expect to experience this in Australia?

MOLLY, 417 VISA WORKER: No. Absolutely not. We were shocked. It made me question Australia as a country.

KERRY O'BRIEN: First-world country, third-world bondage: welcome to Four Corners.

The idea that slave labour might exist in Australia is abhorrent - but get used to it. When it comes to food, we're often exhorted to buy Australian and we probably assume when we see a sign on the supermarket shelf: "Produced or grown in Australia", that it's safe, hopefully fresh and we're supporting local jobs.

The major supermarkets trade on those assumptions. But a Four Corners investigation using hidden cameras and undercover surveillance reveals a very different and quite shocking reality.

Extreme exploitation of migrant labour, sometimes on false documents. Wages well below legal limits, punishing working hours, allegations of abuse, harassment and assault.

Tonight's program will show how the nation's biggest supermarket chains - Coles, Woolworths and Aldi - and at least two major fast food outlets are sourcing their produce from some suppliers who use shamefully exploited workers provided by labour contractors.

We're told by authorities these practices are very hard to uncover. I hope they're watching tonight.

The reporter is Caro Meldrum-Hanna.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's 11:00pm.

In an overcrowded share house in suburban Adelaide, an alarm rings and rings - for five minutes.

Finally the Taiwanese backpackers living here, both working holiday makers, wake up.

(to Mo) How many hours sleep did you get last night?

MO, KC FRESH CHOICE EMPLOYEE (translation): One hour. About one hour.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: They're getting ready for another gruelling night shift at a nearby chicken factory.

MO (translation): Before I came here, my father actually told me not to because he said my English was not good. So he told me not to come. He was worried I would be deceived. And then... yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Are you embarrassed because that's actually come true?

MO (translation): Yes. But I have to work. If we don't have a job, we can't earn any money.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What's happening to Mo and Kevin in Australia - and to more than 150,000 migrants on the 417 working holiday visa, here to toil in our factories and on our farms - is shameful.

JOANNA HOWE, DR., SENIOR LECTURER, UNI. OF ADELAIDE LAW SCHOOL: It's not an Australia that we would put on the tourism brochures. It's not an Australia that we would talk about publicly. But it's an Australia that, where it exists, I'm ashamed to be a part of.

TONY SNELSON, NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS, SA: It is definitely the modern-day equivalent of slavery.

(Excerpt from Coles TV advertisement)

CURTIS STONE, ANNOUNCER (Coles ad): Coles is bursting with delicious, in-season Aussie fruit and veg...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's a far cry from the glossy supermarket ads.

CURTIS STONE (Coles ad): ...at Coles.

(Excerpt ends)

(Excerpt from Woolworths TV advertisement)

ADVERTISING JINGLE: We're Woolworths, the fresh food people...

(Excerpt ends)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The brands we trust, the food we buy and eat on a daily basis.

(to Tony Snelson) If we were to be told where our food was really coming from, what would be printed on the punnets of our tomatoes and strawberries?

Tony Snelson: It would say, "Picked and packed by exploited labour."

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's a 15-minute drive to the Baiada Adelaide chicken factory, where Kevin and Mo have laboured for the past two years: up to 18 hours per day, seven days a week.

Secret camera footage has captured the reality inside the factory.

A relentless pace: workers processing up to 47 chickens a minute.

Coles-branded boxes waiting to be filled.

Workers say they aren't allowed to stop to drink water, or even go to the toilet, for hours on end.

KEVIN, KC FRESH CHOICE EMPLOYEE (translation): Once we had a person who often needed to pee. He didn't allow him to go. Then he actually peed in his pants. Unbelievable, unbelievable.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Kevin and Mo were originally employed by Baiada. But last year, a labour hire contractor named KC Fresh Choice was subcontracted by Baiada to take control of the workers in a section of the factory.

JOANNA HOWE: Where the situation gets particularly difficult is when a third party gets involved, like a labour hire company.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Who are these labour hire contractors?

JOANNA HOWE: Look, if we knew who they were then we could stop this happening. They fly under the radar and the Department of Immigration doesn't know who are these labour hire companies that send 417 visa holders to different locations.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: When KC Fresh Choice took over, Mo and Kevin's pay was suddenly slashed.

The legal award wage is over $25 an hour. Mo and Kevin were paid $18.

Caro Meldrum-Hanna: Where is that money going, then? Who is taking that money if you're not getting it?

KEVIN: I think it's, mmm... KC take. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So they're skimming off the top?

KEVIN: Yeah. Yeah.

JOANNA HOWE: The employer will give the wages not to the worker but to the labour hire company. The labour hire company will then dole out the wages to the worker at a later stage.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And skim off the top?

JOANNA HOWE: We - we know that that occurs.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Here, an exhausted Kevin is seen cleaning maggots out of crates in the warehouse.

According to his own work logs, Kevin has been underpaid by $30,000. Mo says he's owed $28,000 in unpaid wages.

They are just two of many.

(to Kevin) How many people work at the factory with you?

KEVIN: In total it is maybe 100 - 100 people. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: One hundred. And is everybody losing that money as well?

KEVIN: Mm-hm. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Day and night, a constant stream of migrant workers enter Baiada.

KEVIN (translation): A lot of people, even girls, work there too. It's a very low-temperature environment. So when you're working, staying in the cold for so long, your hands can't move. The girls cannot bear it. So they would cry.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What sort of things is the supervisor saying? What was he saying to those women?

KEVIN (translation): He would criticise them all the time, just criticise them no end. They often had no strength left because of the long work hours.

QUEENIE, KC FRESH CHOICE EMPLOYEE: "Why you so stupid? Why you so slowly? Keep going!"

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: She called you stupid?

QUEENIE: Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Kevin's girlfriend Queenie recalls being among 20 women in the processing line cutting chickens, all crying from the excruciating pain in their hands - while their female supervisor verbally abused them.

QUEENIE: You know, when I'm thinking at that moment - I feel, "lt, it's very hard," yeah, because... Oh, it's very terrible. Because they will say, "You cannot stop! Keep going faster, faster!" And the speed change to more quick and the line all more quick. Oh, my God.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And you couldn't stop?

QUEENIE: We couldn't stop. We couldn't.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: This is where Baiada's chickens end up: on the shelves of Coles and Woolworths, branded Steggles and Lilydale.

The labels says "100 per cent Australian grown" and that may be true. What we aren't told is that these products have been processed and packed by exploited migrant workers, many of them grossly underpaid, routinely abused at work.

Baiada also supplies Red Rooster and KFC. It's a massive enterprise. Processing 3 million chickens every week, it's Australia's largest poultry supplier, boasting revenue of $1.3 billion dollars annually.

JOANNA HOWE: If we look beneath the surface, there's a whole lot of working holiday makers performing low-skilled jobs - dirty, demeaning, difficult jobs - for which they get paid very little.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Beneath the surface at Baiada, labour hire contractor KC Fresh Choice is running another racket: an off-the-books, illegal workforce.

Security passes belonging to legal workers no longer at the factory are given to workers on expired or invalid visas, who enter the factory and work under fake identities.

The illegal workforce is overseen by a supervisor at Baiada.

(Footage of supervisor in car speaking with Kevin)

KEVIN (translation): He would take other people's cards and give them to those people who couldn't stay. He brought it out and gave it to me so I could go to work. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We caught the scam on camera, filming from the back of our car while Kevin recorded the conversation with his supervisor using his mobile phone.

SUPERVISOR (translation): Here. Take these: two cards. Take both of these. Use this one first. If it doesn't work, use the other one. Put them in your wallet, one on each side.

KEVIN (translation): OK.

SUPERVISOR (translation): Just flip it open this way and swipe it.

(Footage ends)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Baiada has been caught out by the Fair Work Ombudsman for underpayment of wages at factories around the country.

Using a labour hire contractor, instead of employing people directly, reduces a company's responsibility for what happens to its workers.

JOANNA HOWE: Some of these labour hire companies are actually set up for the very reason that they want to be a sham. They want to take a vulnerable group of migrant workers and then sell their labour on to an employer.

Some of these employers are honest, law-abiding citizens but they turn a blind eye to the exploitation because it's the labour hire company that does the dirty work.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: At Brisbane Airport, these five Taiwanese and Hong Kong nationals have just fled Beresfield, New South Wales, where they worked at a Baiada chicken factory under the control of a labour hire contractor.

29-year-old Mao says they were paid a pittance: almost half the award wage.

MAO, FMR KC FRESH CHOICE EMPLOYEE (translation): Our hourly rate was all the same: that is $13. It was very tiring. By the time we'd get home, we'd just collapse from exhaustion.

KENNIS, FMR KC FRESH CHOICE EMPLOYEE (translation): I found it very unfair. The wages were always incorrect. What does that mean? That means they've tried to deceive us.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Mao and Kennis are heading to Bundaberg, the salad bowl of Queensland, hopeful the job they've lined up on a cucumber farm will be better than the last.

They agreed to let us follow them.

Up to 10,000 migrant workers journey to Bundaberg annually. Most have no idea where they'll be working or who they'll be working for: job ads are kept deliberately vague.

They were taken to an isolated caravan park outside of town. Work began at dawn the next morning.

MAO (translation): Hard work. My lower back, shoulders, hips and feet all hurt. I also got heatstroke.

(Smart phone footage of Mao at cucumber farm)

MAO (translation): So we do this all the time...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Things haven't improved in Bundaberg.

Mao and Kennis are being paid around $12 to $14 an hour to pick cucumbers - well below the legal hourly rate. They've found out an Australian worker on the same farm, doing the same job, is earning over $20.

KENNIS: Why I would go to Australia to go to work, leave my family? Leave my grandpa, my father, my mother? And in Australia, I... I have... I have what? I have nothing.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The injustice of being treated like an underclass in Australia is weighing heavily on 22-year-old Kennis.

KENNIS (translation): My mother and my grandma said, "If you can't stand it anymore, just come back to Hong Kong. Don't stay in Australia because it's too hard." That's it. "Because the wages are not right, you're there and it's so hard. No one looks after you. You're all by yourself."

I've thought this was very unfair ever since I came here. (Cries)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: At 4:30am on a rainy Thursday morning in Bundaberg, a stream of white minivans emerges from the darkness.

Car-loads of migrant workers like Mao and Kennis are being delivered by their labour hire contractors to dozens of fruit and vegetable farms. It's an organised daily routine.

(to Peter Hockings) Has a culture of exploitation taken hold in Bundaberg?

PETER HOCKINGS, BUNDABERG FRUIT & VEGETABLE GROWERS: We believe it's at the point where it now has a very strong stranglehold on the labour market for our industry. And this is a very worrying time for us.

KEITH PITT: There is slave labour in this country. It's something we need to get rid of; that we need to address it and we need to do it soon.

The time for more inquiries and more reviews is over...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Keith Pitt would know. A second-generation sugarcane farmer, he's also the Federal Member in Bundaberg.

He's been calling for help from the Government: funding to set up a special undercover team to stop the slave masters and break the business of exploitation.

KEITH PITT: We need people to work in basically an undercover mode to try and crack down on this, because if we don't we will never, ever catch the people who are actually coordinating it all behind the scenes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Well, if there were undercover operations and if, and if money was actually set aside for that, what do you believe would be exposed?

KEITH PITT: I think you'd find that there's, ah, effectively a whole heap of crooks making an awful lot of money out of the exploitation of people who really don't know any different.

(Footage of 417 visa workers eating at backpacker hostel)

KATIE, 417 VISA WORKER: I just said, "Are we getting paid cash or into our bank?" And he just went, "You get the pay slip, you get the pay slip." I went, "Yeah, but what's the pay slip? Is it cash or is it going into the bank?" "Yeah." And then I went, "Why's it different to last week?" And he went, "'Cause it's changed, 'cause it's changed."

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: British backpackers Molly and Katie, along with their three friends, have been caught up in a complicated web of labour hire contractors...

KATIE: We need to speak to the farm directly...

(Footage ends)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: ...starting at a hostel and leading to a sweet potato farm.

MOLLY, 417 VISA WORKER: It felt like slave labour. It felt like we were going back in time. It was crazy. The way we were being treated was... was inhumane.

I just don't understand how...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Legal workers, here on a 417 visa: their labour hire contractor put them to work at the largest sweet potato grower in Queensland, Akers Farm, run by Dean Akers and his wife Rosie.

DEAN AKERS, FARMER (Dr Grow It All Australia video, YouTube): We're lucky enough that myself and Rosie are the only direct sweet potato growers that have a direct supply to both the major chains, Woolworths and Coles.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In this online video, inside the Akers processing shed, a group of happy, relaxed workers.

Molly and Katie tell a very different story. They say they were verbally abused all day by Dean Akers and farm supervisor Tim Blackley, nicknamed "Tim Tam", pictured here together.

KATIE: He had us stand, like, in a row: me and the three Japanese girls. And he - I've never heard a human being speak to, to other humans how he spoke to those girls. He used to literally call them, like, "retards", like... He was, he was just, he was just awful.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So not only was the supervisor Tim Tam doing this, but the owner...

MOLLY: Yep.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: ...was, Dean was also doing this? Dean Akers?

MOLLY: Yep.

KATIE: "I'm going to fire you if you don't work hard. I'm going to fire you and I'm going to fire you." Like, it-it was just awful. He came to me and was like, "And who the f**k are you?" And then he was like, "Why have they sent me, um, why have they sent a new girl? I wanted Asian girls."

(Hidden camera footage of Molly, Katie et al. walking to hostel)

KATIE: It's just, it's within our f**king human rights to get paid.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Molly, Katie and their friends have to go begging for their pay, returning to the hostel that lined them up with the job.

(Hidden camera footage of Molly, Katie et al. at hostel)

MANAGER 1: I don't know,

417 VISA WORKER (off-screen): We needed Friday as well, though, yesterday.

KATIE: Yeah.

MANAGER 1: Yeah. I never hear from him about the pay.

KATIE: So what are we supposed to do with our...? We have to pay rent. Like, I'm sure you can appreciate: we have no money. You're supposed to be running a business.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Another manager arrives. The confusion continues.

KATIE: You've not been paid anything, either? You say that? This is the thing, though: everyone needs to come forward and like, say. See look Baba look, this girl has not been paid anything. No pay. No pay! How can people work, that have no pay?

MANAGER 2: How long, how long did you work?

417 VISA WORKER 2: Two weeks!

KATIE: Two weeks, no pay! Come on. Come on!

417 VISA WORKER 2: Yes! I want my money.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Their labour hire contractor is heard on speaker phone.

MANAGER 1: That's why they come in now.

CONTRACTOR (telephone): No, no, no. I never told them morning. I'm at the farm.

MANAGER 1: OK. Can you speak to...

KATIE: Can you just ask him when we are getting paid?

MANAGER 1: When can you get- they can get money?

MANAGER 2: He's bringing the money 7 or 8 o'clock, he say. Bring to Peter. We can't do nothing. Sorry. OK?

KATIE: OK. OK.

MANAGER 2 (to employee): Don't bring any more European people here, OK?

KATIE: Let's go.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: There was no money that night. The girls left empty-handed.

They were paid several days later.

(to Molly) Did you expect to find this and experience this in Australia?

MOLLY: No, absolutely not. We were shocked. It made me question Australia as a country.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In Victoria, Mildura and neighbouring town Robinvale are magnets for migrant workers. The region produces a massive 70 per cent of Australia's table grapes.

Right now, demand for itinerant workers is at its peak. The season is drawing to a close.

Grape farmer Tony Natale is filling the day's orders, supplying the big supermarkets. For the past six years, he's used a labour hire contractor to source all of his workers.

(to Tony Natale) Now, be honest with me: do you think there could be illegals here?

TONY NATALE, TABLE GRAPE GROWER: To be honest, there could be. I'd have to say that, 'cause unfortunately, um, we lose completely track of, of, ah, what the contractor brings in, as much as we do sit down as who comes in and who goes out.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Natale has been caught with illegal workers here before.

Every single picker on the farm is Asian. Natale says they are all paid correctly.

(to Tony Natale) There may be a few illegals here? Is that what happens? Do you just turn a blind eye?

TONY NATALE: It's... Yeah, it's... you, you, y-you know, you're caught up in a, in a situation where we've got a, you know, a, ah, your season depends on, on that crop. If you think there could be an illegal there and you're gonna all of a sudden lose all your, your force, workforce, you know, you just have to say, "Well, jeez, let me get me crop off at least."

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (to John Katis): And the grapes then, are they being packed by exploited or illegal labour? Is that the truth of it?

JOHN KATIS, DEPUTY MAYOR, SWAN HILL RCC: Oh, you can say that. You can say that, yes. But unbeknown to the, to the grower, though. I, I, I think the grower does not get himself involved whether, you know, to find out. I think that's where the problem lies.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What sort of things are going on...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: John Katis is the deputy mayor of Swan Hill Rural City Council. He's watched his town of Robinvale become the vortex of black market labour, overrun by unscrupulous labour hire contractors in full view of the authorities.

JOHN KATIS: And don't tell me that they don't know who the contractors are, because every morning you see buses going from here. Who owns those buses? Where are they going?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So who is policing the labour hire contractors? Because what they are doing is illegal and it's on a grand scale.

JOHN KATIS: Nobody.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The Department of Immigration swooped on Robinvale six weeks ago, rounding up illegal workers for deportation.

But the labour trade brazenly continues: the streets filled with white minivans, labour hire contractors ferrying workers morning and night.

(to John Katis) Well, instead of police and Immigration going after workers, who should they be going after?

JOHN KATIS: I think they should be going after the contractors for a start and asking the questions, you know, have a look at their books. Where's their book?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: At the extreme end of the scale - what's known as "black market labour" - we found there are no books at all and the labour hire contractors are impossible to pin down.

We're on our way to meet a group of migrant workers who've fallen into the black market trap. They're living in a run-down, crowded share house in the middle of a grape farm.

We had to meet them in secret. We've obscured their identities for their own protection.

(to Meng): When we came into the house tonight, we had to come in secret. Why?

MENG, FARM WORKER (translation): Because there are a lot of illegal things going on here.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Are there lots of illegals working in Robinvale?

MENG (translation): Yes, a lot. Not only backpackers but also people on tourist visas who came here to work.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Meng, Jason and Vivian, Taiwanese nationals, are all legal workers on legal visas. But they've found themselves stuck in a black market, off-the-books job. Fearing deportation if they speak out, they're desperate for help.

(to Meng) Is this a black labour job?

MENG (translation): Yes. Just cash in hand. And no bank account or tax file number.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Meng and Jason's first farm job in Victoria was a disaster. When they arrived, the farmer escorted them to a horse barn - where they were expected to live.

(to Jason) Inside the horse barn, how many people were living there?

JASON, FARM WORKER: Maybe 10 to 20.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Ten to 20 people in the, in a horse barn?

JASON: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What did you think when you saw that?

JASON: Oh, it was very terrifying, all wrong. So I don't like it there. I can't live, stay there an- any nights. So I leave there.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Meng and Jason, videoed here picking grapes, don't know the address of their home or the farms they work at. They're under the control of a labour hire contractor who pays them half the legal wage, averaging around $11 an hour.

Twenty-year-old Vivian is paid even less.

(to Vivian) What's been your, your worst week?

VIVIAN, FARM WORKER: Two hundred and fifty.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: OK: 250.

VIVIAN: Around, around there.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Around that. That means you were only making $3.95 an hour.

VIVIAN: Yeah. Yeah.

(Vivian shows small sheet of paper with her calculated earnings. She is paid $2.10 to $2.50 per box of grapes filled)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: That make you f-feel sad, looking at that?

VIVIAN: Oh, really bad. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Did you think that when you came to Australia, when you're working hard, you would be paid as little as $3.95 an hour?

VIVIAN: No. No.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The grapes Vivian is picking and packing are going to the popular cut-price supermarket chain ALDI.

ALDI and each of our major supermarkets have policies on ethical sourcing, telling us the food we buy isn't tainted by exploitation.

According to the National Union of Workers, the policies aren't worth the paper they're written on.

GEORGE ROBERTSON, NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS, VIC.: All of the major suppliers are using, ah, dodgy labour hire contracting arrangements that, ah, fundamentally exploit the workers who pick and pack the vegetables that make, ah, make their way onto Coles' and Woolworths' shelves and that consumers buy, believing that that produce is, ah, produced fairly in Australia.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In October 2014 the NUW wrote to Coles, Woolworths and ALDI, alerting them to "systematic unlawful employment practices" in the vegetable supply chain.

Nothing's changed.

GEORGE ROBERTSON: I could take you into a Woolworths and, um, I could show you, ah, the, the farms where... ah, which-which farms are using contractors. And you'd be surprised: it's across all product categories.

(Hidden camera footage of Caro and George inside a supermarket)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We did exactly that. Onions from South Australia.

GEORGE ROBERTSON: Workers here make $17 an hour, which is illegal.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Corn from Victoria.

GEORGE ROBERTSON: Workers make $15 an hour and pay $125 a week to live on the farm in a demountable.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: OK. Carrots, broccoli?

GEORGE ROBERTSON: So these are both from Covino Farms in Longford, where workers are paid $14 an hour, work up to 22 hours a day.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Tomatoes from Adelaide.

GEORGE ROBERTSON: So this is D'VineRipe in South Australia. Workers here are grossly underpaid. They make about $17 an hour.

(Footage ends)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And women are being subjected to an even worse form of exploitation.

At 5:00am, 31-year-old Stephanie from Taiwan begins her working day.

She came to Australia on a 417 visa to travel and work, believing she'd be paid fairly and treated with decency.

STEPHANIE, 417 VISA WORKER: In Taiwan we, we try to fight our right, but in here, you know, we, we, we are, like, homeless, you know. We don't know the rule and no one can help us.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Stephanie and her friend Carrie leave home before dawn. They've been picking cherry tomatoes at D'VineRipe for almost six months.

D'VineRipe is Australia's biggest tomato greenhouse, one of the country's most prestigious growers.

(to Tony Snelson) What sort of reputation does D'VineRipe enjoy?

TONY SNELSON, NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS, SA: They would be, ah, be probably displayed as the jewel in the crown in South Australia. Ah, and the, er, the Government often refers to them as a, a model employer.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The proud recipient of $2.5 million dollars in Government funding, D'VineRipe produces 15,000 tonnes of tomatoes annually, propelled by hundreds of migrant workers.

TONY SNELSON: They have a layer of permanent employees who are paid award wages. They have a layer of casual workers that are paid award wages. But then at the very bottom they have a layer of workers - maybe up to 100 out of a workforce of 400 - that, er, that are, um, provided by a labour hire company; that are not paid, er, correctly in accordance with the award.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: That labour hire company is CNC Labour Hire, run by this man, Peter Yim, pictured here with a group of migrant workers.

Four Corners understands CNC Labour Hire supplies D'VineRipe with a quarter of its workforce: 120 migrant workers on varying visas and rates of pay.

STEPHANIE: Someone told me, "You have casual job. You have part-time job. This is not real, ah, this is not legal working pay." I said, "What? How much is re- real, ah, legal pay?" She told us, "$21." I said, "What?!"

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: CNC Labour Hire is underpaying workers like Stephanie by up to $5 every hour. It adds up to thousands in missing wages.

Stephanie, Carrie and their friend Eve were lured to Australia by a travel agent in Taiwan called Glory Group who, according to these employment documents, charged them almost $1,500 just to get a job.

TONY SNELSON: They are lured into, ah, into, to travel, ah, and they approach an agency. The agency, for a cost, um, sets up the trip. They set up the accommodation when they get here. And they, ah, set them up with work when they get here on the promise that all is going to be well.

EVE, 417 VISA WORKER (translation): I came to Australia actually because my mum passed away. So I wanted to change to a different environment. (Cries)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And you got here and something bad happened?

(Eve nods)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: When Eve and her friends arrived in Australia, the Taiwan agency handed them over to labour hire contractor Peter Yim, who took them to live in a house filled with 10 migrant workers.

Soon after, they were paid a visit by Peter Yim's friend Dinesh Dhungana.

One of D'VineRipe's own, Dhungana is a glasshouse supervisor, filmed here with South Australia's Premier, Jay Weatherill.

STEPHANIE: So before we get interview, Dinesh come to my share house and help us how to pass the interview.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So Dinesh just turned up?

STEPHANIE: Mmm.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Dinesh Dhungana singled out Eve for special attention.

EVE (translation): He came to our home. He said he was looking for me and wanted to chat alone in my room. After we went into my room he said he loved me very much and wanted to date me. And then I said, "Let's not be alone." Then he kissed my hand and my face. That was the first time.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How did that make you feel, Eve?

EVE: Very scary.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Eve says the unwanted advances escalated, with touching and kissing at work inside the glasshouse, and text messages and calls to her mobile phone.

EVE (translation): I rejected him many times. Once I even told him that I had a boyfriend already. Then he became angry. After he got angry, he started to pick on me at work.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Eve reported the harassment to D'VineRipe management. Soon after, labour hire contractor Peter Yim called her to a private meeting.

(Footage of Peter Yim reading out text message)

PETER YIM, LABOUR HIRE CONTRACTOR (31 December 2014): This is like, ah, "Thank you very much for your time but that's it," OK? We don't have any, there isn't more work for, no more work for you. It's finished.

FRIEND: Oh, OK. So you mean she can't work here anymore?

PETER YIM: No, she can't.

(Footage ends)

EVE (translation): I found it very unfair because I complained to the company, hoping they would punish him. I didn't care whether I could go back to work or not. But the company didn't give me any answer. They just said I couldn't go back to work.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (to Ada): Did he kiss you?

ADA, 417 VISA WORKER (translation): Yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We've tracked down another woman who says she was harassed by Dinesh Dhungana, and propositioned for sex, while working at D'VineRipe.

ADA (translation): I said, "Don't." I told him directly and seriously, "Don't kiss me." He told me he had a property in Mawson Lakes. He said if I lived there and slept with him I wouldn't need to rent a place.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Dinesh Dhungana is still employed by D'VineRipe: videoed here in the glasshouse three weeks ago. He denied the allegations made by Eve and Ada.

D'VineRipe continued to use labour hire contractor Peter Yim to source migrant workers.

We tracked him down, operating out of a car park in a demountable office, at a different address to the one advertised. He wouldn't answer any of our questions on camera about his workers.

Neither would anyone from D'VineRipe.

(to Tony Snelson) What does that say about the culture at D'VineRipe?

TONY SNELSON: Unfortunately it says that, ah, the profit is more important than, ah, than, you know, the workforce.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: D'VineRipe's tomatoes are being supplied to supermarkets across the country, including Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, Costco and IGA.

JOANNA HOWE: If there's just one worker being exploited in this way, it's not good enough. But we know that it's happening on quite a significant scale.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Gippsland, Victoria, is home to Covino Farms, the salad king of Australia.

GEORGE ROBERTSON: So Covino produces, ah, packaged salads and pre-cut vegetables in packages that it- they supply that to Woolworths and other, ah, supermarkets and they supply, um, KFC and other fast food outlets with, ah, their lettuce.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In the past seven years the company has received more than 30 improvement notices for breaches of workplace health and safety laws.

It's also being investigated by Fair Work for the underpayment of wages, with allegations of workers labouring up to 22 hours straight.

Despite this, in November 2013 the Victorian Government awarded Covino a $1.5 million grant.

GEORGE ROBERTSON: So Covino: they're about 200 workers who are working for $14 an hour. So what's happening at Covino is for every hour that every single worker works at Covino, ah, they are being, they are having $7 stolen from them in wages.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Twenty-four-year-old Winnie is one of those workers.

WINNIE, 417 VISA WORKER: Is so tired. Um, when we work, the time is too long.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Winnie is contracted to work at Covino Farms by a labour hire company called Chompran Enterprises.

The union claims a massive $2 million in stolen wages is being siphoned off by the company every year.

(to George Robertson) Is Covino aware that workers are being ripped off in this way?

GEORGE ROBERTSON: Absolutely.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Chompran Enterprises is represented at Covino by this man, a labour hire contractor mysteriously known only by the name Sam.

Four Corners understands he manages around 100 migrant workers at the farm.

WINNIE (translation): I thought he was a nice guy. So I didn't give it much thought. I never thought he was such a mean person.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In November 2014, while working on the processing line, Winnie seriously cut her hand, severing the nerves in her index finger.

A few days after her surgery, labour hire contractor Sam took her to his home so that Winnie could get her pay.

WINNIE (translation): I just wanted to go home as soon as possible but I was waiting for him to get the money.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Winnie says Sam forced her onto his bed, pinning her wounded hand down so hard, her stitches opened.

WINNIE (translation): I tried my hardest to push him away but my hand was injured. I knew my hand was bleeding because I used all my strength to push him away. But he's very tall, so even though I tried with all my strength, I couldn't push him away.

Then he put his hands into my clothes and touched my breasts. (Wipes tears from face)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Winnie managed to escape. She reported the incident to police and to Covino Farms.

That was five months ago.

Covino continued to use Sam and Chompran Enterprises as their labour hire contractor.

WINNIE: Yes, I'm very angry. I think: why, why, why keep use? Because Sam is so bad, I think. Mm-hm.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We requested an on-camera interview with Covino Farms. The company declined.

Stories of Asian migrant women being sexually harassed and assaulted at work are widespread.

(to Peter Hockings) Are you aware of allegations that migrant workers, itinerant workers are being asked to perform sexual favours in exchange for an extension of their visa?

PETER HOCKINGS: That is another report we have heard on numerous occasions. It is in return for signing off on their second year visa application, for those legitimate visa workers, that they have a choice: They either continue working for nothing or they pay a significant lump sum - a cash lump sum - or provide sexual favours.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: There are fears organised syndicates are also moving in across the country.

PETER HOCKINGS: We've heard that some of these syndicates are actually bringing in people to service the workers, um, so prostitution, basically. Um, it... That's a very big concern for us.

KEITH PITT: My view is that we need a multi-jurisdictional taskforce. We, we need all levels of government to get together and to try and have a co-ordinated effort to crack down on this.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: At 6:00am, Winnie waits in the rain to be picked up and taken to Covino Farms. She's still working there. She says no one from the company has helped her.

WINNIE: I think it is so sad, and it's too bad. It's terrible.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Do you think you deserve better in Australia?

WINNIE: Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: This is where much of Covino's salad ends up: at KFC stores across the country.

It's the lettuce in your chicken burger and the carrots in your coleslaw.

After meeting so many migrant workers across the country and seeing their despair, one thing is clear: our fresh food supply chain is riddled with exploitation. It really makes you stop and think: where is our food coming from?

(to Keith Pitt) If people knew where their food was coming from and what had gone on, do you think that people would be buying it?

KEITH PITT: I don't think they would. We have an underclass at the moment who are underpaid, who are being exploited. And it has to stop. Ah, I guess my view is that this is slave labour. And in Australia that shouldn't happen.

KERRY O'BRIEN: I wonder how these revelations sit with your idea of a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.

Cavino Farms and D'VineRipe have now informed us they have terminated their agreements with their labour hire contractors. A spokesman for Akers Farm says the company rejects the allegations that its workers were abused, while KC Fresh has denied it is using illegal workers.

We requested on-camera interviews with the supermarkets and fast food chains. All declined. Their written responses are on our website.

Next week on Four Corners: the fight over remote Aboriginal communities. Are they a "lifestyle choice" or are they a right?

Until then, good night.

Background Information

RESPONSES

ALDI Response [pdf]

Coles Response [pdf]

Costco Response [pdf]

Covino Response [pdf]

D'Vine Ripe Response [pdf]

KC Fresh Choice Response [pdf]

KFC Response [pdf]

Red Rooster Response [pdf]

Woolworths Response [pdf]

Akers Farm Response [pdf]

National Farmers' Federation Media Release following Four Corners

Media Release - RCSA calls for national response to 'rub out' sham and unscrupulous labour-hire companies | 5 May, 2015

Temporary visa program front for slave labour | Australian Council of Trade Unions Media Release | 5 May, 2015

MEDIA

Federal Government to examine payslips of 417 visa holders to crack down on labour exploitation | ABC News | 6 May, 2015

Baiada launches investigation into migrant worker exploitation claims | ABC News | 6 May, 2015

D'VineRipe sacks labour hire company following reports of worker exploitation, underpayment of staff | ABC News | 5 May, 2015

Victoria to investigate foreign worker exploitation in Australia | BBC News | 5 May, 2015

'Four Corners' Ripped The Lid Off The Exploitation Of Migrant Workers On Australian Farms Last Night | Junkee | 5 May, 2015

Companies must ensure suppliers don't use forced labour | The Age | 5 May, 2015

Workplace watchdog aims for top of retailers' supply chain on worker exploitation | Financial Review | 5 May, 2015

Victorian Government to begin inquiry into labour exploitation, slave-like conditions after reports of 417 visa abuse | ABC News | 5 May, 2015

Baiada accused of using labour hire companies which exploit foreign workers | ABC News | 5 May, 2015

Migrant workers 'in slave-like conditions' | SBS News | 5 May, 2015

Slaving Away - Four Corners, shows tip of slave labour iceberg | Adelaide-SouthAustralia.com | 5 May, 2015

Migrant workers in slave-like conditions, ABC's Four Corners reports | The Sydney Morning Herald | 5 May, 2015

Fast Food, supermarket giants exploiting Australia's black market in labour | ninemsm | 4 May, 2015

Migrant workers in slave-like conditions | Daily Telegraph | 4 May, 2015

Australia's fresh food workforce: How does it operate and who is involved? | ABC News | 4 May, 2015

Labour exploitation, slave-like conditions found on farms supplying biggest supermarkets | ABC News | 4 May, 2015

Four Corners investigation reveals exploitation and slave like conditions on farms supplying Aussie supermarkets | news.com.au | 4 May, 2015

Sex abuse, stolen wages and 'slave-like conditions' | Daily Mail Australia | 4 May, 2015

Labour exploitation, slave-like conditions found on farms supplying biggest supermarkets | ABC Radio Australia | 4 May, 2015

Pacific Solution | ABC Landline | 2 May, 2015

Victorian Government granted Covino Farms $1.5 million for expansion | The Weekly Times | 2 April, 2015

Adjournment - ending exploitation starts with supermarket giants | By Keith Pitt MP, Federal Member for Hinkler | 25 March, 2015

Thousands are living in 'modern slavery' in Australia, says Walk Free Foundation | The Sydney Morning Herald | 18 November, 2014

Adjournment - illegal labour hire | By Keith Pitt MP, Federal Member for Hinkler | 29 May, 2014

In Conversation: Australia's invisible migrant workers | SBS | 23 May, 2013

Casualties in the supermarket war | ABC Radio National | 24 March, 2013

Speech by Stephen Bennett, Member for Burnett, on abuses within the horticultural industry | 2013

MP wants action to prevent harvesting rorts | The Chronicle | 22 December, 2012

ASSISTANCE AND RELATED WEBSITES

Anti-Slavery Australia - Working to Abolish Slavery | +61 (02) 9514 9660 or email antislavery@uts.edu.au

Visitor Programme statistics | Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection

National Union of Workers | NUW members work in a diverse range of industries and for employers from multinational corporations to small businesses.

T-WHY Taiwan Youth Blog | Information about workers rights for Taiwanese working holiday youth

National Farmers' Federation | The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) is the peak national body representing farmers and agriculture across Australia.