Riverina cotton farm Gundaline Station under investigation for pay and safety breaches

Gundaline Station is a 14,916-hectare irrigated cotton farm between Darlington Point and Hay.

It prompted concerns about foreign ownership last year when it was sold to a subsidiary of Chinese clothing giant, Zhejiang Sunrise.

Now, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) say they have ignored the rights and welfare of farm workers as the state's work safety body investigates allegations of workplace safety breaches.

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AWU's assistant branch secretary Ron Cowdrey confirmed the union was investigating allegations made by the station's workers.

"AWU is investigating a number of concerning potential underpayments at Gundaline. If we find underpayment has occurred we will be looking to assist affected workers with securing compensation," he said.

"Underpayment doesn't just affect the victims, it affects the whole community by driving down standards and putting employers doing the right thing at a disadvantage.

"That's why we'll keep monitoring safety and employment standards at Gundaline and surrounding farms."

Gundaline management was contacted for comment, but did not reply prior to publication.

A spokesperson from Safe Work Australia confirmed Gundaline was under investigation for a number of safety breaches.

"In September, SafeWork NSW received a request for service regarding Gundaline. A SafeWork inspector visited the site where improvement notices were issued for electrical, confined spaces and emergency response issues," he said.

"SafeWork is continuing to work with the business to ensure safety issues are addressed.

"No further comment can be made at this time."

AWU have spent the last two years investigating farms across the country, amid allegations of underpayment, and migrant labour exploitation.

In June, the union claimed credit for the deregistration of Labor hire firm Linx.

AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow said at the time Linx's business model amounted to modern slavery.

"Let me be clear, if you treat workers like slaves, the AWU is coming after you," he said.

"We are concerned this is tip of the iceberg, in the year 2019-20 there were 171 people seeking protection visas after coming to Australia on PALM, SWP and PLS visas, in 2022-23 there were 1,698."

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