Please download the attached article that appeared in the recent Australian Tree Crop magazine featuring Cobram & District Fruit Growers Association President Tony Siciliano and General Manager, Karen Abberfield.  Tony and Karen discuss how the increased Queensland Fruit Fly (Qfly) pressure is of great concern for growers and the need for continued effective and widespread management of the pest.

Download the Tree Crop article here

Summerfruit Australia Ltd is involved with a number of specific R&D projects:

• Deploying real-time sensors to meet Summerfruit export requirements (CRC Food Agility Project - range of partners)
• Chemical use for export Summerfruit - educational resources (Summerfruit Australia Ltd/Agriculture Victoria)
• Cobram Carpophilus R&D project (Summerfruit Australia Ltd, Cobram growers, Chemical companies).

Summerfruit have organised an R&D Showcase to present some of the results on Wednesday 26 May from 9:00am and include a symposium at the Tatura Ballantyne Centre, 9 Hastie St, Tatura, Victoria and then a farm session at the Agriculture Victoria Tatura facility.

DOWNLOAD THE ATTACHED FORM TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT.

Workplace visits put safety in the spotlight
WorkSafe, Department of Health and Labour Hire Authority inspectors have visited orchards across the Shepparton region as part of a co-ordinated approach to workplace safety. Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner Steve Dargavel said the Authority’s focus during its visits was on education and ensuring compliance, checking that providers had COVIDSafe plans, as well as looking at their licence status and conditions for labour hire workers. Click here for more information...

Teams take safety message to Goulburn Valley growers
The Labour Hire Authority, WorkSafe, Agriculture Victoria and the Department of Health held an information session for providers and hosts in Shepparton at the Parklake Hotel ahead of the inspections. The session provided employers with practical and constructive advice about how to comply with occupational health and safety regulations, stay COVIDSafe and support vulnerable workers, as well as information about accessing seasonal workers and the support available. Click here for more information...

Work-related fatigue: A guide for employers
Employers are responsible for preventing and managing fatigue in the workplace. There are three broad types of fatigue: physical, mental and emotional. To learn how to prevent fatigue, check out the Work-related fatigue guide for employers from WorkSafe

Changes to electronic record-keeping
Record keeping continues to be an important tool to stay safe and stay open. Information and advice is available for businesses and workplaces required to collect contact details. Most customer-facing venues and facilities are required to use the free Victorian Government QR Service or Victorian Government Application Programming Interface linked digital system for electronic record keeping.

Changes to casual employment – industrial relations reforms

On Friday 26 March 2021, the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) was amended to change workplace rights and obligations for casual employees. The changes were made by the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Act 2021 (Amendment Act).

These changes came into effect on Saturday 27 March 2021.

What’s changed-
The Amendment Act introduces a:

• Casual Employment Information Statement
• definition of casual employment
• pathway for casual employees to move to full-time or part-time (permanent) employment.

Visit the Fair Work website for more information on these changes

The only reason why many of us in our jobs, mine included, continue to get paid an hourly rate is because no fair, equitable and easy way has been found to measure our output. If you care to stop to think about it, paying workers according to their output is the fairest way of remuneration.

Read the full article here...

Please find attached copy of the updated Industry Restart Guidelines- Seasonal Horticulture.

This update covers changes to Record keeping and Facemask requirements.