Current News

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) Workplace Guide contains basic advice on managing the impact on farming workplaces, including relevant work health and safety and industrial relations considerations. 

The Guide is intended to facilitate thinking and decision making about the health and safety of people on farm, including family and workers, and ongoing job and business security and continuity. 

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, the Guide is only intended to provide high level guidance and assistance of a very general nature.  Click here to view. 

There has been a lot of calls from growers seeking safety and hygiene posters in different languages that can be displayed in around the orchard to assist with dealing with the COVID-19 situation.  Please see the below resources that may assist:

• Publications, videos, reports and more.- 
  https://www.health.gov.au/resources?search_api_views_fulltext=posters
• Translated resources to help share the messaging about coronavirus (COVID-19) in various languages - https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/partner-resources/covid-19-translated-resources/

The Federal Government has announced its intention to pass the JobKeeper payment program which is designed to support employees and businesses affected by COVID-19. This is a long awaited stimulus measure that assists employers in retaining their workforce.

In summary, the proposal is for a wage subsidy, dubbed the JobKeeper payment, to be made to employers of $1,500 per fortnight per employee to help businesses retain workers through this period.

Key points for employers

• To be eligible and register, employers need to make a declaration that their revenue / turnover has dropped by at least 30% as a result of the current restrictions / COVID19 impact (businesses with $1 billion turnover need to declare a 50% reduction in turnover).
• The subsidy is a flat payment of $1,500 per fortnight, per employee. Aimed to cover part time, full time, casual workers and sole traders who have been in their role for 12 months or more.
• Subsidies available for a period of 6 months from 30 March 2020.

Due to the international and national context resulting due to Covid-19, and in line with new measures recently announced by the Chilean Government and the Ministry of Health, the decision have been made to postpone the Global Cherry Summit, which had been due to take place on April 23. This decision has been made in order to ensure the wellbeing of the participants and collaborators.

Visit the Global Cherry Summit website for updates...