Fishing companies off to court

Nelson fishing companies Sealord and Amaltal and the Labour Department are heading to the Employment Court over pay practices after an investigation into employment conditions in the fishing industry.

Sealord Group chief executive Doug McKay also called today for Labour Minister Paul Swain to reveal which company and fishing boat had employed six foreign workers said to have been mistreated, to "stop having the rest of the industry tarred with innuendo".

A Labour Department report this month into fishing industry employment practices included allegations that six Indonesian crew had suffered serious physical abuse on an unidentified foreign-owned ship fishing in New Zealand waters.

Mr McKay said the allegations were damaging the industry, and Sealord had been getting calls from concerned international customers and labour unions wanting to know what was going on.

Mr Swain said today he sympathised with the industry's concerns but legal advice to him so far was that he could not name the ship or company the fishermen worked for, because the allegations were made on the condition of anonymity.

However, he said he had gone back to the department to see if there was a way to name the company involved.

Mr McKay said that in the department's investigation, the only matter under discussion between it and Sealord was pay practices.

The company pays freezer trawler crews consistent amounts whether they are on land or at sea, in a move supported by the Fishing Industry Guild, so they have regular incomes.

However, the department believes Sealord should pay fishers a larger percentage of the wage when crews are at sea and actually working, Mr McKay said.

Sealord and the guild say fishers will be disadvantaged if Sealord is forced to change its pay practices, in what Mr McKay has called Labour Department "nit picking".

To test the differing interpretations of the Minimum Wage Act, Sealord, the guild and the department would be going to the Employment Court in a joint approach, Mr McKay said.

Amaltal also planned to test the interpretation in the Employment Court or through the Employment Relations Authority.

"This is a discussion about a technicality, and timing, not level of pay," Mr McKay said.

The department's workplace deputy secretary Andrew Annakin said testing the employment legislation interpretations through the court was a good way to help resolve the issue.

"We need to be assured that employers are paying employees the minimum wage for each hour worked, in each pay period," Mr Annakin said.

"It may be true that overall these two companies do pay the minimum wage, however we need to ensure the way the industry pays workers has the transparency to demonstrate this. Paying workers what they are due in each pay packet will."

Meanwhile, police and the Maritime Safety Authority met the Labour Department last week to begin looking at the brutality allegations and the Seafood Industry Council is also investigating.

- nzpa