A new report from the National Union of Workers shows conditions for labour workers in Australia's Horticultural industry remain dire.
The unions survey revealing two thirds of farm workers are earning below the minimum wage, with the average salary below $15 an hour.
Poor conditions, treatment and underpayment are all too familiar to former vegetable picker Natasya.
Working at a farm in Northern Victoria, she says she was made to work long days and paid close to 10 dollars below the casual minimum wage.
"If you are not achieving the speed they are expecting they will say like, 'you are too slow, you need to go faster', and that's what they tell you constantly all day. And they just make you work like a machine, I expected the job to be heavy and to work in a fast pace but not in that kind of bad situation and not expected to be treated like that," Natasya said.
Temporary visa holders like Amira and Nataysa make up 60 per cent of Australia's horticultural workforce.
The National Union of Workers survey reveals most of the labor force are undocumented and paid cash in hand by third party contractors.
NUW President Caterina Cinanni is calling for an overhaul of the system to ensure hire companies meet employment standards.
"Cash contracting is not a standard, wage theft is not a standard. What is a standard is fair wages, what is a standard is direct employment, what is a standard is workers having the right to speak out and be protected," NUW President Caterina Cinanni said.
The work done by the horticultural labor force also supplies the major supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles.
While both supermarket giants claim to be committed to the fair treatment of workers, Ms Cinanni says they are not putting their policies into practice.
"They are a billion-dollar industry. They profit from the labour, the blood sweat and tears from these farm workers and they need to recognise the systematic exploitation of works in this industry and they need to act and doing something about it."
The union wants to remind consumers to question supermarkets about where they are sourcing their food from and demand it is produced ethically.
That's a sentiment shared by the Farmers Federation of Victoria Vice President Emma Germano.
She says consumers have the power to only shop at stores which prove their supply chains treats workers fairly.
“We need better transparency across the supply chain, so that consumers know when they go into a supermarket exactly how much farmers are getting paid for what it is that they’re paying for. That level of transparency will start cleaning up some of these issues. But we are all responsible, from the paddock all the way to the plate. If we all get in this together we are going to see a meaningful change,” Emma Germano said.
