Itinerant foreign harvest workers in Australia: the impact of precarious employment on occupational safety and health Underhill, Elsa and Rimmer, Malcolm 2015, Itinerant foreign harvest workers in Australia: the impact of precarious employment on occupational safety and health, Policy and practice in health and safety, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 25-46. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads underhill-itinerantforeign-2015.pdf Published version application/pdf 351.52KB 1594 Title Itinerant foreign harvest workers in Australia: the impact of precarious employment on occupational safety and health Author(s) Underhill, Elsa orcid.org/0000-0002-3931-2867 Rimmer, Malcolm Journal name Policy and practice in health and safety Volume number 13 Issue number 2 Start page 25 End page 46 Total pages 22 Publisher Institution of Occupational Safety and Health Place of publication Leicester, Eng. Publication date 2015-12-02 ISSN 1366-1965 1477-4003 Keyword(s) Backpackers contracting, horticulture occupational health and safety payment systems temporary migrants undocumented workers young workers Summary Horticulture work in many high-income economies is increasingly performed by temporary migrant workers from low-wage economies. In Australia, such work is now performed predominantly by international backpackers – young well-educated workers with mostly sound English language skills. These workers are drawn to harvesting work by a government scheme which provides an incentive for completing a specified number of days work in horticulture. This article examines the health and safety experience of these workers, through focus groups, interviews and an online survey. Notwithstanding their distinctive backgrounds, the harvesting experience of these temporary migrant workers is similar to that of low-skilled migrants working in other high-income countries. Health and safety risks associated with work organisation and payment systems, and a lack of compliance with OHS legal requirements, are commonplace but potentially compounded by a sense of invincibility amongst these young travellers. Furthermore, a growing pool of undocumented workers is placing downward pressures on their employment conditions. The vulnerability associated with work and earnings uncertainty, and the harsh environment in which harvesting work occurs, remains a constant notwithstanding the background of these workers. Language eng Field of Research 150306 Industrial Relations 1117 Public Health And Health Services Socio Economic Objective 910401 Industrial Relations HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2015, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30080149 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Business and Law Deakin Business School Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges   Publisher URL Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Tue, 08 Dec 2015, 13:58:03 EST Wed, 09 Dec 2015, 04:03:30 EST Tue, 15 Dec 2015, 05:25:50 EST Mon, 21 Dec 2015, 10:33:00 EST Wed, 20 Jan 2016, 09:16:55 EST Wed, 20 Jan 2016, 09:20:33 EST Wed, 20 Jan 2016, 09:22:12 EST Wed, 09 Nov 2016, 11:38:45 EST Wed, 06 Dec 2017, 06:49:29 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 17:40:22 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 13 times in TR Web of Science Cited 11 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 679 Abstract Views, 1595 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Tue, 08 Dec 2015, 13:58:03 EST