Drug tests open doors for Northland job seekers

Tawhai Tapene. Photo / Natalie Slade

Tawhai Tapene Voluntary drug tests have helped a bunch of formerly unemployed young Northlanders to scoff at the recession.

American-born former high school teacher Gary Hack, now a contractor for Work and Income in Kawakawa, found work for 89 unemployed people last year - partly by encouraging them to have blood tests to prove they were drug-free.

"The problem in Northland is not unemployment but rather an excessive number of 'unemployables'," he said.

And Tawhai Tapene, an 18-year-old who featured in the Weekend Herald last week as one of many school-leavers still looking for a job, started work this week at the Rosvall sawmill near Whangarei.

Northland's unemployment rate was 9.8 per cent in March. More than one in four (29 per cent) of its young people aged 18 to 24, and almost one in two Maori aged 18 to 64 (48 per cent), are on benefits.

But Mr Tapene, who applied for the navy and "five to 10" other places since leaving school last year, found work at Rosvall through a friend who left the mill last week. Rosvall process manager George Gee said the mill has scaled back from about 60 to 50 staff and the vacancy was not advertised.

"We hardly ever advertise our jobs because it's always a mate of a mate, and they come through the gate as well," he said.

Mr Tapene is working 6am to 3pm at $14 an hour plus bonuses.

In the Bay of Islands, Mr Hack said only one of the 90 people who completed his course last year did not get a job. He helped 30 into horticultural work, 27 into hotels and restaurants and 32 into other jobs such as boat repair, oyster farming, building and reception work.

He said the three keys to his success were starting people off in unpaid work experience to get references, improving their presentation, and encouraging them to get drug-tested.

He said many Northland employers now drug-tested workers because the Accident Compensation Corporation refused to pay out on accident claims if any trace of drugs was found in an injured worker.

"I've taken advantage of that to say, 'Go to an employer and show you're drug free'," he said. "That really impresses employers."

Nathan Crooks, 24, who joined his parents in Paihia this year after working as a mechanic in Lower Hutt, could not find work for four months until Work and Income referred him to Mr Hack on May 24.

Within three days Mr Hack found him work experience with Kawakawa Auto Services, and on the second day the business gave him a job.

Wayne Whaanga, 32, was jobless for two years after being laid off from a tyre shop in Moerewa. He weighed over 200kg at the start of this year.

Mr Hack found him work at the Beaurepaires tyre shop in Kawakawa last month. The job, plus a Jenny Craig course, have helped Mr Whaanga slim down to 148kg. "I feel heaps better."