The National Union of Workers and the Greens are calling for an urgent audit of staffing at a South Australian tomato facility, which has been given taxpayer funding through Government grants.
They say Perfection Fresh, which runs a major greenhouse at Two Wells, may have failed on a commitment to create full-time jobs, with many staff on precarious casual contracts.
According to the union, staff who have been at the company for as long as five years are still on casual contracts and have no access to annual leave or penalty rates.
Perfection Fresh has declined to comment, but worker Khudadad Ahmadi, who has been picking tomatoes for three years, told the ABC through a translator he still has no job certainty.
"Sometimes they are asking us for long hours," he said.
"If we reject this option from the company, for the next week they are asking us to stay home for two days and are not giving us proper shifts.
"A full-time job is very important for my life. Without it I cannot apply for [a] home loan. I don't have annual leave. My job is not safe."
According to the union, 177 full-time jobs should have been created under a 2012 grant worth $1 million.
Under a second regional development grant worth $2 million, another 80 new full-time jobs were promised, the union said.
But at the moment the company only has 70 full-time employees out of a workforce of 450 workers, according union organiser Mark Whenan.
"When public money is used I think the public expects that the government will create secure employment and jobs that people can count on," he said.
In a statement, an SA Government spokesperson said the company had documented its full-time equivalent jobs "as required by grant guidelines".
"All milestones have been completed and the company has provided documentation to certify the information provided was true and correct," the spokesperson said.
But a full-time equivalent position is not the same as an actual full-time position, said Greens MP Tammy Franks, who has backed the call for an audit.
"Those equivalent jobs are not secure and I think they are not safe," she said.
"Workers aren't able to have a rest in 57 degree heat. [It's] not good enough in South Australia."
It is not the first time Perfection Fresh, which claims its tomato glasshouse is "the largest in Australia", has been embroiled in controversy. In 2015, the company — then named D'Vine — sacked its labour hire company.
It came after reports on Four Corners of worker exploitation and the underpayment of staff.
"This company has form. They may have changed their name but they clearly haven't changed some of their practices," Ms Franks said.
"We shouldn't be trusting them to do the right thing, we should be holding them to account."
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