Victorian fruit farm manager filmed in undercover sting

An undercover Malaysian journalist has secretly filmed the manager of an Australian fruit picking farm admitting visa paperwork was often “dodgied up”.

In video of the undercover sting, Saiful Hasam from Malaysian language daily newspaper Utusan Malaysia, can be seen placing a small camera inside his beanie.

Hasam then approaches an unnamed senior manager at Swan Hill’s Curti Fruit, who he alleges uses underpaid illegal workers supplied by labour hire contractors.

"Are you legal? You got legal papers?" the farm manager is heard asking Hasam.

"I can't employ you direct. You don't have the paper. You know what I mean? That's why we use the contractor because, I don't know, they dodgy it up."

The journalist, who entered Australia on a short-term Visa, was hired over the phone by a contractor and given work at Curti fruit, ABC News reports.

He was also given a place to stay at a property owned by Curti Fruit.

He worked 23 hours over several days and was paid $110, of which $70 was taken out for rent.

Curti Fruit told the ABC in a statement it "would never knowingly exploit illegal workers from foreign countries".

"Our contractors are subject to an agreement which specifically states that they are required to check the validity of any foreign workers' visas and to meet to set pay rates.

"Should any of our current contractors be found to be in breach of employment laws or visa requirements their agreement will be terminated. Two contractors were terminated prior to this harvest (one in March and one in October) because of concerns about their employment practices.”

Costco has said it will stop buying Curti Fruit until its workplace practices are audited, while Coles is also investigating the reports.