Friday, March 29, 2024

Kiwifruit industry turns over new leaf

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All contractors supplying labour to the kiwifruit industry will be required to meet international employment law and worker welfare standards from next harvest season.
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The industry has been stung by a government agency report saying the majority of labour hire contracts were breaching their obligations as employers.

The report, based on an audit of the sector during the 2016 harvest period, make industry standards sound worse than they are, New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers (NZKGI) chief executive Nikki Johnson said.

The new requirement followed a pilot programme also during 2016, and would add to changes already being made.

As the industry expanded, worker welfare was paramount and any instances of poor employer compliance was disappointing and unacceptable, she said.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment said last week that audits of 62 labour-contracting companies over a three-month period showed that 53% of employers were failing to meet all minimum employment standards, such as providing employment agreements and paying at least the minimum wage.

Most of the contractors were using migrant labour, MBIE Labour Inspectorate regional manager Kevin Finnegan said.

Some employers had been able to immediately address the breaches, but 20 improvement notices and six enforceable undertakings were also issued to compel employers to meet their obligations.

Johnson was still waiting to hear from MBIE about the details of breaches, but noted that only two infringement notices had been issued on top of improvement notices.

“I don’t want to underplay this, but it seems like it is mostly simple paperwork being the issue, not employers exploiting workers.”

She said there were about 350 contractor businesses offering services to the kiwifruit industry. The industry has about 10,000 permanent workers, and 8000 seasonal workers.

“My understanding is that they looked at companies where they were aware of there being an issue, so I don’t think this is a fair reflection of the industry overall.”

Johnson accepted that the audit process was done on a surprise basis, but said she would’ve liked some warning about MBIE’s findings, which she only learned of from the press release. “It is a sensitive issue for our customers, and we would have welcomed being able to prepare the (Zespri) staff who were selling fruit internationally.”

MBIE’s Kevin Finnegan said the audit uncovered significant pay arrears, with one employer owing more than $25,000 to workers. The breaches had been disappointing, but not surprising because the issue had been raised with the industry over a number of years, he said.

The kiwifruit industry had taken steps to lift the compliance rate since the 2016 audit, and needed to continue doing so.

Johnson believed significant improvement had been made and more would be done.

NZKGI is part of an international programme, GlobalGAP GRASP, under which next season all orchard contractors and all growers would be assessed for compliance with employment law and worker welfare. This was a worldwide standard on good agricultural practice.

The organisation had also commissioned independent research on labour practices in the industry, covering recruitment, employment and management of seasonal labour.

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