Elaborating decent work for agriculture: Job experiences and workforce retention in the Australian orchard industry

Abstract

There is growing policy and research interest in the quality or attractiveness of farm jobs, driven by both the deepening problem of agricultural workforce shortages worldwide, and by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of achieving “decent work for all” by 2030. Our contribution to this work is a case study of fifty-seven waged workers' experiences of their jobs in the orchard industry in the Australian state of Victoria. Our quantitative survey research used psychological contract theory as a framework for exploring what aspects of people's job experiences contribute most to their job satisfaction and intention to stay in agricultural employment. We also mapped these findings to the domains of the International Labour Organization's decent work concept, to examine the extent to which the decent work concept can provide useful guidance for policy and practice to address workforce challenges in industrialised country agriculture. We found that satisfying employees' expectations in relation to “Safety and security”, “Enabling good work” and “Training and opportunity” had the biggest influence on their intention to continue their employment. While the first of these is captured by the decent work domains, the latter two are not. This suggests that the decent work concept on its own does not fully account for aspects of the employment relationship that are important for worker retention, and for human flourishing.