We see you
One question that keeps coming up time and time again in our work is how do we make the invisible, visible?
Many growers face significant visibility challenges. Whether it’s the hard work they do behind the scenes to put healthy and nutritious food on our tables; or the levies they pay towards R&D and marketing that slips from their bottom line. They also employ extra staff to help with the invisible burden of quality control, compliance, human resource management/ industrial relations and harvest/packing with costs often not covered by the price they receive for their produce.
Just like an iceberg, much of the work that is visible to you and I is only 10% of the picture we see on the market shelves. The other 90% is bloody hard work often behind the scenes which is unfortunately unseen and often undervalued.
It's in this area of invisibility that exploitation can occur. Growers are vulnerable to the power imbalance, and we will continue to call out poor behaviour and encourage cost burden sharing.
QFVG also battles invisibility however recent feedback from members tells us that we are getting some cut through and headed in the right direction. What growers said is that they want us to be even stronger in our advocacy efforts and be more visible in the regions and on-farm. We have also heard that we need to be more vocal and share what we are doing on behalf of horticulture in Queensland.
So, growers will be seeing more of us on-farm and in the growing regions this year. One way we will be doing this is offering more state-wide training in the regions after the success of the negotiation skills training under our Geared Up Horticulture initiative.
The first of many under this initiative is kicking off in early March in Bowen. Called Geared Up Workforce, it is being delivered in response to growers’ questions, calls for help, and requests to restart our popular face-to-face HR/IR sessions that we ran many years ago.
Our trusted workplace relations provider, Focus HR will deliver this training to agribusiness owners and managers who are expected to be compliant and effective in HR and IR practices often without any formal education or learning in this space. This practical training will cover the big-ticket questions around the Horticulture Award, employment contracts and managing performance and productivity.
Also coming soon to the regions is Geared Up Farm Safety and Business training - all supported and heavily subsidised by the State Government's SmartAg Program managed by the Queensland Farmers’ Federation.
You can register for a session near you by visiting the QFVG website: www.qfvg.com.au/geared-up
