Friday, March 29, 2024

Shearer shortage concern as season starts

Avatar photo
Time is running out for overseas shearers to be allowed into New Zealand to work ahead of the start of the shearing season in November.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association (NZSCA) president Mark Barrowcliffe says the industry needs 40-60 more shearers to prevent worker shortages this season.

He says they were hoping to get a border exemption for these shearers from the Immigration Minister, but this had been delayed because of the election.

“We have contractors that have got names (and) passport numbers of all of the people in the UK who are sitting there ready to come – and are still keen to come – at the moment. But as every day goes by, there will be someone that drops off that list because they are thinking they are never going to get in here,” Barrowcliffe said.

The Association has about 100 members, shearing about 70% of the sheep in NZ.

The shearing season runs from November in the North Island and works its way south into late January in the lower half of the South Island.

He says the window where these workers could enter NZ, go through the quarantine process and get to work was rapidly narrowing.

Compounding the issue was Australia’s decision to open its borders. Among the first people on flights from NZ to Australia were NZ shearers heading to farms to shear sheep.

“We would like to get a few in if we could, especially with Australia opening its border so we’re losing a few over there already, and that’s going to exacerbate the problem,” he said.

Prior to covid-19, shearers would travel back and forth between NZ and Australia as work allowed. But this was now highly unlikely because of flight costs and quarantine rules.

“It wouldn’t be practical and there lies the problem. There are enough shearers in the world, but because we’re a transient workforce, we need to cover the peaks whenever the peaks are happening.”

The covid-19 induced travel restrictions had put a halt to it.

“We’re really at a pinch point where you are asking someone to come from the Northern Hemisphere and book a flight within a few days and try and get a quarantine slot in. It’s getting on the skin of the teeth,” he said.

“The longer they don’t make a decision with our time factor getting quite tight, the decision will be made for us by the guys overseas, it will be impossible for them to come.”

Training up people to work in the industry was not really an option because it took about two years for a new shearer to be able to work at a suitable standard.

Barrowcliffe feared if there were staff shortages it could lead to shearers being overloaded with work, resulting in injuries.

The Association is telling its members to try and front-foot this by getting farmers to be flexible if possible, with when they want shearers to come.

Barrowcliffe says the industry was also unintentionally aided by the fall in sheep numbers from last season’s drought as some farmers reduced their capital stock.

“We shouldn’t say it’s a good thing for us because it’s not, but for the problem of being understaffed, it’s probably the one shining light for us,” he said.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading