Australian largest poultry supplier agrees to take responsibility for worker exploitation

Australia's largest poultry producer has agreed to take responsibility for the failings of its subcontractors and pay almost 500,000 Australian dollars in wages to underpaid workers.

Baiada Poultry, which supplies chicken to chains such as KFC, McDonalds and Australia's supermarkets, has entered into a compliance partnership with the Australian authorities to "make good" on past underpayments by contractors and implement changes to ensure compliance in workplace laws, the Fair Work Ombudsman said in a statement on Monday.

The Fair Work Ombudsman in June released findings of an inquiry into wide-scale exploitation of foreign workers at Baiada's factories, a large number being from China on working holiday visas that had been recruited through newspapers and social media by labour-hire contractors.

Workers were paid less than half of Australia's minimum wage while forced to work extremely long hours and pay high rents to live in overcrowded, unsafe worker accommodation.

Baiada has agreed to assume responsibility for the underpayment of workers engaged in it's supply chain, though not in their direct employ as the poultry supplier believes it has a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure proper conduct of all aspects of its business, the compliance agreement says. Endit