'squalor, Abuse' For Riverina Farm Workers

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 13, 2008

Eamonn Duff

INDIAN nationals are living in squalor and are allegedly being subjected to human rights abuses in a small NSW-Victorian border country town.

Scores of Hindu couples have been channelled off planes to work at Rorato Nominees tomato farm in the Riverina town of Jerilderie, NSW.

The company's supervisor, Sam Prassad, is under investigation over an alleged sexual assault as well as the virtual confinement of dozens of workers. As a condition of employment, the workers must pay to live in cramped, squalid properties owned by Mr Prassad, although Mr Prassad denies this.

Lawyer Dale Brooks said his firm, Taylor and Whitty Solicitors, had eight pending industrial and criminal legal cases relating to migrant abuse at the Rorato factory.

"In all the years I've worked as a lawyer, I have never witnessed such blatant breaches of human rights," he said.

"They are running a Dickensian sweatshop up there and nobody seems to want to know a thing about it."

Mr Brooks said the Indians arrived in Sydney on holiday visas, where they were met by an immigration lawyer who sought refugee status for them. They were then funnelled to Jerilderie, 60 kilometres from the Victorian border, by an agency. The agency received a finders fee from Rorato for each worker delivered.

"Once they arrive, they are at the mercy of Sam Prassad," Mr Brooks said. "For some, the trip to Australia has been nothing short of a fate worse than death."

Sergio Rorato formed Rorato Nominees in 1965 after arriving from Italy several years before.

Today, his family-owned firm operates a farm and factory in Jerilderie producing tomato products under the label "Billabong Produce".

In the late '90s, Mr Rorato handed Mr Prassad the role of supervising his casual full-time workforce.

The company has since been embroiled in controversy.

In 2004, Rorato commissioned an agency, Primary Contracting Services, to source "independent self-employed contractors". The firm supplies a constant stream of Hindi speaking couples, all from the province of Gujarat.

Former workers claim that when they arrived at Rorato, Mr Prassad ruled by fear.

They said he demanded an initial job-enrolment fee of between $1000 and $4000 a couple, in cash. As a strict condition of employment, all workers were crammed into two dilapidated, one-bed "communes" owned by Mr Prassad.

One former worker, Mahesh Prajapati, arrived in Australia in 2002 with his wife, Ramila.

Now, he is permanently disabled from a workplace accident, for which Rorato has since been found negligent.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: "To work at the factory, you must live where Sam says. My wife and I lived with 15 others. No furniture, no beds. We all paid $60 each per week, but it has since become $75."

Mr Prajapati said that once when five tenants moved out and found other accommodation, their shifts "suddenly stopped". "When they returned, they received work from Sam once more," he said.

Another former worker, Rashmika Patel, now begs on the streets of Griffith for food, awaiting likely deportation and claiming Deniliquin police have failed to adequately follow up allegations she was sexually assaulted, then sacked, by Mr Prassad. She said that when her husband, Vishnu, confronted Mr Prassad they were both dismissed for reasons that included "stealing tomatoes".

Mr Prassad said he had never charged workers a job enrolment fee, only rent. "They live in my houses, I charge them like anyone else because I have bills to pay, but of course they are free to live somewhere else if they want," he said.

Of the alleged sexual assault against Mrs Patel, he said: "It's bullshit and lies. I've never been involved with anything like this before."

But prior to the migrant worker arrangement, which was set up in 2004, three local female employees launched separate legal proceedings against Mr Prassad, all alleging sexual harassment. One claimed Mr Prassad rubbed "the front of his body against her back" and urged her to "hop on the forklift to have sex".

In 2003, Rorato Nominees and Mr Prassad settled out of court without admitting liability, paying each woman $8000 in "general damages".

Lawyers acting on behalf of Rorato said in writing at the time that the family had "counselled" Mr Prassad and asked him in to "avoid any familiarity with staff that could lead to claims of allegations of harassment".

When asked last week, Mr Rorato said: "I've warned Sam about making mistakes, but if he gets himself into trouble, that's his business."

Of the workers: "They're contractors, as is Sam. They're not my responsibility. I pay them the right money. Once they're out of my gate, I don't care where they live or what Sam does. I'd like to be left out of this."

A spokesman for Primary Contracting Services said: "I appreciate conditions out there are not favourable but that's out of our control. We provide contractors, we don't employ or house them."

An Immigration Department spokesman said the department was aware of the sexual assault allegation against Mr Prassad.

A NSW Police spokesman confirmed an investigation into the alleged assault was "active".

CASE 1 RASHMIKA PATEL

EIGHT months ago, Rashmika Patel lodged a formal complaint with NSW Police alleging that Sam Prassad had sexually assaulted her at work. She claims her case has gone nowhere.

Mrs Patel and her husband, Vishnu, arrived in Australia in 2005 with the hope of earning money to pay for their children's education. After "contacts" sent them to Griffith and Jerilderie, the couple worked at Rorato's under the supervision of Mr Prassad.

"When you work at Rorato's, you must live in one of Sam's houses," Mrs Patel said.

The couple lived with 10 others in one house. They were charged $75 each, which was deducted from their weekly pay. They worked up to 65 hours a week but were thankful to be earning up to $900 in return.

After 12 months it is alleged Mr Prassad began sexually harassing Mrs Patel. The couple said he separated them against their will, confining Mr Patel to day shifts and forcing Mrs Patel to work alongside him at night.

In her statement to police she claimed Mr Prassad "touched her breasts" and "rubbed and stroked" her legs with a screwdriver. She claimed he also cornered her on two occasions and sexually assaulted her.

When Mr Patel confronted Mr Prassad, she claims she and her husband were immediately sacked for "stealing tomatoes".

Mrs Patel was denied compensation by a licensed insurer on the grounds there was no proof sexual assault occurred and no evidence she had suffered psychiatric illness. She has lodged an appeal.

Mrs Patel's solicitor, Dale Brooks, has written to NSW Police Minister David Campbell, describing the police investigation as "sullen, reluctant and unhelpful". He said a third party had approached Mrs Patel with an offer of a "large cash payment, presumably to buy her silence".

Mr Prassad said: "She was a bad worker, she was always fighting with other workers and I was told she was stealing. One day she just left and took her husband with her. Then I heard she had said all this. Police came to see me but it's all finished now."

CASE 2 MAHESH PRAJAPATI

MAHESH PRAJAPATI was almost crushed to death by a forklift while working at the Rorato factory.

He and his wife, Ramila, had arrived in Sydney in 2002, unable to speak English, and secured temporary refugee status. They were channelled to Jerilderie in southern NSW.

The couple's goal had been to return home with enough money to give their son Ketu, then aged 5, a better life. But in April 2005, Mr Prajapati was run over by a forklift at the factory. He was rushed to Shepparton Hospital, where his distraught wife remained by his bedside for four days. When she returned to work she was sacked on the grounds she had missed shifts. After a prolonged legal fight, Rorato paid her a $48,000 out-of-court settlement for unfair dismissal. Mr Prajapati spent seven weeks in hospital. Today, his legs are held together by titanium pins, he has lost the use of his left arm and will live the rest of his life with a 54 per cent whole-person impairment.

In a case before the Industrial Court of NSW, Rorato was found guilty of operating an unsafe work environment. Mr Prajapati has received an initial WorkCover compensation payment of $156,000.