Thursday, March 28, 2024

Gate shuts on herd manager migrants

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Dairy industry leaders were disappointed by the Government’s rejection of their arguments against making it harder for farmers to employ migrant workers.  
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Their arguments were put in submissions during the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s annual review of two lists of essential skills, the Long Term Skill Shortage List and the Immediate Skill Shortage List.  

The lists are regularly reviewed to meet the changing needs of the labour market and give New Zealanders the first opportunity to fill job vacancies.  

The occupations to be culled from the Immediate Skill Shortage List (ISSL) as a result of the latest review include Dairy Cattle Farmer – Herd Manager and Assistant Herd Manager.

Beef Cattle Farmer – Herd Manager and Assistant Herd Manager will be removed too.

Another ISSL change affects the criteria for a Dairy Cattle Farmer – Assistant Farm Manager. Qualifications for this job are being raised from NZ Qualifications Framework level 3 to level 4, although the required work experience is being reduced from three to two years.  

The changes take effect from June 1.

Immigration NZ is dropping the positions of dairy herd manager and assistant herd manager from the ISSL because – it says – many migrants have been employed with limited experience.

This suggests the skills required by farmers filling these positions are low.  

The changes are intended to realign the farming sector with the standards required for a skill shortage listing.  

Submissions from DairyNZ, Federated Farmers and Primary ITO generally aimed to keep the provisions for farming occupations on the ISSL or delay implementing the proposed changes.  

Mark Paine, DairyNZ’s strategy and investment leader for people and business, said his organisation acknowledged the occupations of herd manager and assistant herd manager fell below the threshold of criteria for inclusion in the ISSL.   

But it pressed for a phased withdrawal to minimise disruption, maximise employer and worker investments, and incentivise the Sustainable Dairying: Workplace Action Plan, which was launched last year with Federated Farmers.  

DairyNZ supports the principle that NZ citizens and residents, with the appropriate workplace and personal skills, should have precedence over migrant workers for employment on dairy farms.  

A pilot group training scheme in Ashburton involving the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Work and Income, DairyNZ and Federated Farmers was “a tangible example of how we actively support providing local employment,” Paine said.  

DairyNZ’s submission proposed that change would be better managed by withdrawing the position of assistant herd manager from the ISSL after two years, to allow time for migrant workers to gain genuine, verified work experience, and the position of herd manager after four years, to give assistant herd managers time to develop their skills.  

“We’re disappointed our suggested approach wasn’t taken up so farmers and the Government could make the most of the investments already made in migrant workers,” Paine said.

DairyNZ had preferred a more graduated implementation to help farmers manage their businesses particularly because they were now under heavy financial pressure from the low milk price, Paine said.  

“The decision will make it tougher on some farmers,” he said.

“Recruiting and retaining good staff for dairy farmers remains a key challenge. 

“It would have been easier for farmers to manage this change if they had had more time to adjust.”  

DairyNZ also believes migrants holding temporary work visas should be able to maintain and renew their visa if their employers confirmed continued employment.  

This continuity would build on the investments already made by the employer and taxpayers, in immigration administration and migrant children’s schooling for example, Paine said.

It also recognised the considerable investments made by migrants.

Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard agreed the ISSL changes were “disappointing, on top of everything else that’s going on in the industry”.

The industry was implementing plans to build employment capability that would bring more NZers into the dairy industry.  

“But this won’t happen overnight,” Hoggard said.

“We hoped to be given a time frame. And if we hadn’t sorted things out, then that’s our problem, we’ve had our chance – but we haven’t been given that chance.”

In its submission, Federated Farmers said it was disappointed Immigration NZ was reacting to the recent discovery of fraudulent activity involving Filipino workers by making it harder for migrants to work in the dairy industry. 

That in turn was making it harder for dairy farmers around the country to manage their businesses where access to skilled, willing workers to help them was limited.  

Migrants played an important role on dairy farms in many regions where skilled, willing labour was in short supply, the Feds argued.

Their submission quoted a Waikato farmer who had written: “In Otorohanga there is no unemployed between 15-25 years and in Te Awamutu it’s not much better. Around Putaruru, Litchfield Fonterra dairy expansion will suck up another good 60 people.”

The Council of Trade Unions supported the proposal to remove herd manager and assistant herd manager from the ISSL. 

Immigration NZ said the numbers of work visas issued for the dairy-farm occupations it was culling were high and increasing.

It said “substantial numbers” of jobseekers with experience in these occupations were registered with Work and Income and advised Federated Farmers some of those jobseekers could be suitable for these positions. 

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