Yarra Glen Orchard (YGO) is located just outside Yarra Glen in Victoria. The orchard grows three types of apples, oranges and pears, and it supplies fresh food retailers across Melbourne. In the past, YGO had relied heavily on labour from backpackers and young workers travelling in Australia to pick fruit but due to the border restrictions in place over the last three years and the low unemployment rate in Australia, it has been difficult to find workers. YGO often doesnt have enough workers to pick all the fruit and it has had to cancel some supply contracts because it cant fulfil them.

Things are starting to pick up when the Victorian government announces that Thursday 22 September 2022 will be a one-off public holiday in commemoration of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. This is problematic for YGO because it cant close for the day because the fruit needs to be picked to meet orders that weekend. 20 part-time employees engaged under ongoing contracts of employment as fruit pickers ordinarily work on Thursdays.

On 16 September 2022, upon learning about the public holiday, William, the HR Manager of YGO, consults YGOs enterprise agreement. Clause 12 states:

12 Public Holidays

12.1 The following days are Public Holidays: New Years Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Queens Birthday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day or any other one-off Public Holidays as announced by the Victorian or Commonwealth governments.

12.2 Employees rostered to work on public holidays will be paid at their ordinary rate of pay plus a 25% loading per hour.

William realises that clause 12 applies to the 20 part-time fruit pickers.

Later that day, William calls a meeting with Harry and Meghan, who own YGO, and Kate, YGOs accountant. After considering the cost of operating on 22 September, the four of them agree that the best thing to do is to pay the 20 employees who ordinarily work on Thursdays their ordinary hourly wages for the day and direct them to perform work as usual. They agree to give each worker a crate of fruit to thank them for working that day.

Via email, William explains this to the 20 employees. He notes that YGO has only recently begun to recover from hard times and thanks the employees for their loyalty. He writes that YGOs owners recognise that each of them will be doing the company a big favour by working on 22 September and they are very grateful to them.

You work for the Fruit Pickers Union. Soon after William sends the email, you receive a call from Edward, one of your members who works at YGO. Edward asks you what, if anything, he and the other workers at YGO can do in response to Williams email.

Were so sick of how poorly they treat us, Edward says. Our wages are low and now this! The orchard cant operate without our hard work. Cant we just go on strike?

Advise Edward.