Sealord looking at importing Chinese workers, says diplomat

1.00pm

Nelson-based fishing heavyweight Sealord Group wants to bring skilled Chinese workers to New Zealand for temporary employment, according to a visiting Chinese diplomat.

Industry sources say some other Nelson fishing companies are also looking at employing foreign labour on New Zealand boats to cut costs in the face of an industry crisis.

Zhihai Zheng, the commercial counsellor for the Chinese embassy in New Zealand, said Sealord representatives mentioned the idea when he met them in Nelson on Wednesday.

The workers were needed from July to September because Sealord was "quite busy" then, he said. "But they have to negotiate with the Immigration Service."

Sealord spokeswoman Merrill Coke said yesterday the company had "no current plans" to recruit Chinese workers.

"Our priority is to recruit local labour for the processing plants this hoki season, and we are working hard on that," she said.

Immigration Service spokesman Brett Solvander said discussions relating to the recruitment of foreign workers were under way.

"Some recent approvals have been on domestic vessels and while due process takes place for all approvals, (the service) is attempting to instigate an understanding with all interested parties on recruitment for domestic vessels."

Concerns were raised last week about New Zealand fishermen being edged out of jobs when another Nelson-based fishing company, Amaltal, revealed that four Filipino workers had arrived in Nelson for training on board the factory trawler Amaltal Enterprise.

Amaltal general manager Ken Atkinson said then that the Filipinos were part of Amaltal's "at sea" training programme to qualify them for work on the company's international vessels, which fished in the Pacific and South America.

A spokeswoman for Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope confirmed that the minister's office had received a letter from Motueka-based businessman Peter Talley, "broadly related to the topic" of bringing foreign workers to New Zealand.

Mr Talley is the managing director of Talley's Fisheries which part-owns Amaltal.

Fisheries Ministry spokeswoman Sarah Morton said the ministry had no involvement in the recruitment of foreign labour.

She said foreign workers must hold a New Zealand work permit issued by the Immigration Service.

New Zealand Fishing Industry Guild South Island administration officer Louis Hart said the guild was in discussions with the Immigration Service about the employment of foreign labour on New Zealand fishing boats.

The guild advocated the "New Zealandisation" of the fishing industry and would resist any move by the companies which jeopardised the jobs of its members, he said.

The guild is the union that represents the country's commercial fishermen.

The industry has been forced into crisis mode because of a New Zealand dollar that peaked recently at US70 cents, disappointing hoki catches and low commodity prices.

Two large trawlers, both part-owned by Talley's Fisheries, were tied up earlier this year because of economic pressure.

- NZPA