$50 million Agriculture Workforce Plan released

The Victorian Government is helping businesses in rural, regional and outer metropolitan Victoria to meet their labour needs during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

It’s $50 million Agriculture Workforce Plan assists agriculture, food processing and critical food supply chain businesses with recruitment, case management support, worker induction and re-training and business adaptation costs.

Where local people are unavailable, the Agriculture Workforce Plan is supporting eligible businesses by offsetting the cost of accommodation and travel for new employees.

It’s part of the Victorian Government’s $500 million Working for Victoria Fund, which helps people who have lost their jobs to find new opportunities.

Agricultural, food processing and food supply chain businesses can register their requirements via the Working for Victoria platform and access the talent pools to fill vacant job roles.

Businesses may also be eligible to receive:

• A daily travel-to-work allowance of up to $50 per employee to attract new staff if there are delays filling eligible job roles.
• Up to $200 per day for the cost of accommodating new employees to enable them to fill eligible roles if they were unable to be filled locally.
• For impacted businesses, between $1,000 and $100,000 to induct workers into new roles and deliver training that has been necessitated as a result of the pandemic
• Between $10,000 and $300,000 to cover up to 50 per cent of the cost of adapting workplaces to comply with COVID-19 health, safety and social distancing requirements or adapt to required business changes imposed from the COVID-19 pandemic

Businesses with urgent needs or those that would like to talk to someone about targeted support, should email the Agriculture Workforce Plan at agricultureworkforceplan@ecodev.vic.gov.au and a case manager will respond to them directly.