Better pay across the Tasman and around the world has created a roaming workforce of NZ shearers, making it harder for farmers and contractors here to recruit, train and retain staff.
Kiwi and Australian shearers have long enjoyed easy two-way movement but it’s mostly been one-way traffic because of NZ’s inferior piece rates and entitlements.
Some NZ shearers have been shuttling back and forth for decades – and a fair number choose to make Australia a permanent home.
The association’s recently recommended 25% pay rise for shearers and wool handlers could stem the flow, Barrowcliffe said.
He employs a seasonal peak of 30 shearers and about 20 wool handlers from a base at Pio Pio in King Country.
The new pay and conditions mean it is nothing to go to Australia for a good, four-week stint and Australians might now be tempted to come to NZ for a short stint too, he said.
An advertiser in the most recent issue of Shearing magazine, Taihape and Taumarunui-based Mackintosh Shearing, said the business is paying the new rate plus the 3% employer Kiwisaver and there is lots of work ahead from November to the end of March.
The all-up payment for shearers is $2.05 a sheep, paid in full weekly, comprising $1.67 for ewes and lambs plus holiday pay, gear allowance, Kiwisaver and travel with breakfast and smoko provided.
“Plus, you get paid statutory holidays: there are six stats over the period (Christmas, Boxing Day, two at New Year, Anniversary Day and Waitangi Day). So that’s up to six days you get paid to have the day off. Add that in and you are doing very well.”
The firm, whose owner Ewen Mackintosh is an executive member of the association, said its pay rates for experienced shed staff are between $21 and $27, plus 20 minutes/day for paid rest breaks, plus 8% holiday pay, plus 3% Kiwisaver.
Additionally, wool handlers get paid an extra $3/hour when they work a ratio of two shearers to one wool handler.
“It’s good money,” the ad said, adding “Life here is fully catered” by two base cooks, with a help-yourself breakfast, home-cooked smokos and lunch to go with the crews followed by dinner at the end of the day. The accommodation is $25 a night, including that breakfast and dinner. The cost of van travel to work is covered and all the vehicles tow covered gear trailers.
Barrowcliffe said while NZ shearers’ work conditions have improved, one of the biggest changes for contractors is the introduction of compliance for holiday entitlements and the like.
The old pay system was like sheep running out the woolshed into the yards.
“Every time one went out the porthole you got paid for the whole sheep.”
Shearers are still getting a piece rate but statutory holiday pay and other entitlements are calculated separately. It isn’t ideal for running a shearing business because no one can predict an average day’s pay based on piece rates, nor is it easy to record running records like entitlement to sickness or bereavement leave.
“You don’t know how big the rump of the sheep is or the head. You don’t know how big (the entitlement) is until it falls due,” Barrowcliffe said.
