The loss of workers reduced capacity to further process product.
Alliance has applied to Immigration New Zealand to bring in 100 workers from overseas to make up some of the shortfall at Lorneville.
“If you know any politicians ask them if they’d help us on this,” Surveyor said.
“Across the industry there are 2000 people too few working in processing plants.
“That’s a big number. It’s a really big deal.”
Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie confirmed that figure, saying it is based on a survey of the companies.
“We need about 25,000 people working in processing plants at the peak of the season and that shortfall is about 10%. It is a very significant problem for us.”
It means meat companies cannot optimise product specification and some products cannot be recovered for processing in the boning room so end up in the chute for rendering.
Ritchie didn’t have an overall cost for the sector but the result was less export revenue for NZ than should be achieved.
The industry has to go through a very bureaucratic system to get approval to bring workers in from overseas.
Companies handle their own applications for general plant workers but MIA handles the process for halal-certified slaughter-board staff on their behalf and that is one of the main problem areas.
Alliance people and safety general manager Chris Selbie said companies want to employ workers from local communities because that is the most straight-forward option but there are not enough suitable and interested people in regional NZ, where the plants are.
Overseas workers are not used to displace locals.
But the Meatworkers’ Union opposes the Alliance application, Invercargill-based Southland-Otago secretary Gary Davis said.
He claimed Alliance’s recruitment criteria for Lorneville is too restrictive in terms of physical ability and age-group. A lot of people aged over 55 are being rejected when they are capable of working.
“We think there are enough people around the catchment.”
Selbie said some people are not physically fit for the work and others fail the mandatory drug tests.
“We’re not unreasonably fussy.”
Davis acknowledged absenteeism is a problem but is an issue across other industries too, not just in meat processing.
Lorneville should have about 1700 workers during the peak processing season.
“On average we’d be 105 workers short of being fully manned each day and on the worst days the impact of both the ordinary shortages and absenteeism could be as high as 250,” Selbie said.
Some people have genuine reasons to miss work, such as illness, but others don’t or can’t turn up.
Alliance is also struggling to fill the required job numbers at its Pukeuri, Oamaru, and Smithfield, Timaru, plants in the South Island for this season and in putting on the second shift at Levin. It has had approvals to bring in workers for Pukeuri and Mataura, including beef boners from China at Mataura last season.
The company doesn’t know day-to-day how many staff it will have but plans for a certain level of absenteeism. At peak, its workforce nationally should be about 4200.
Because of the piece-rate payments system, based on product tallies, the shortages of staff and lost production mean lower pay for all workers, Selbie said.
Ritchie said the problem around the Halal-certified slaughter staff and access to market is acute.
The industry needs about 240 of these people and they must be Muslim. Only about half can be sourced domestically, leaving the balance to come from the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Immigration rules say overseas workers must be approved every year and effectively because of the income levels around seasonal work they can come for only three years, returning home in the off-season, but not for a fourth successive year.
That means finding and training new people every year and that is a challenge.
“We argue that we are an export industry bringing in very important overseas funds and it’s crazy to be compromising that activity,” Ritchie said.
Halal-certified staff make up about 1% of total processing plant numbers but about 40% of product is required by Muslim export markets to be certified. On top of this, other specific customers require halal product, for example Chinese firms supplying the 23 million Muslim market in China.
On absenteeism, Davis said the work is hard and physical and involves shift work and as the season moves on, people start to wane.
He thinks companies can do more to train young people and give them time to grow into their work and help provide a more balanced work/life pattern for workers.
However, at Lorneville there are a lot of workers on the number one chain well into their 60s and working very effectively.
