Locals picky on seasonal jobs while PIs swoop in

Overseas workers will swoop into hundreds of jobs in Northland while locals sit on the benefit.

More than 300 overseas workers will stream into Northland to fill seasonal labour shortages each year, while 7910 Northlanders claim job seeker benefits.

But an industry leader has defended the local workforce and says it is not just a matter of Northlanders twiddling their thumbs while Pacific Island workers swoop in to make the most of the harvest-time boom.

Richard Lenton, citrus labour and harvest manager at T&G Growers Kerikeri, said his company brought in about 180 of the 300 mostly-Pacific Island workers who were imported to Northland each year.

He said the Government's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) programme, which allowed companies to recruit non-New Zealand labourers, had turned the horticulture industry around.

"In years gone by because of the struggle to find reliable labour to pick on time, the markets weren't met and earnings weren't what they could have been. With RSE, all of a sudden the earnings were starting to be realised ... There's mass plantings and a real buzz in the industry."

Mr Lenton said T&G prioritised recruiting locals - but added that as a group, they tended to be less productive.

"In terms of the ability to earn high wages [local and RSE] workers were capable of the same result. But when you look at the overall spread the result was completely different. Most of our RSE workers are in that top group of producers. The local labour was spread much more diversely."

Mr Lenton said many Northland unemployed people were not living anywhere near where seasonal work took place. RSE workers generally paid for accommodation at local motels, lodges and holiday parks.

"But if you take a person say, in Dargaville, for them to travel back and forth to Kerikeri is a big ask," he said.

Melanie Chandler-Winters, Northland regional seasonal labour co-ordinator for PickNZ, said there was a lot of work going on to promote horticulture to the Kiwi workforce, including through schools and trade academies. Her organisation had worked with Corrections placing people coming out of prison into work, as well as with Maori trusts.

Mr Lenton said the money RSE workers earned had an "unbelievable" effect in their home countries.

He travelled to the Pacific Islands twice a year on recruitment missions and described how the standard of living had been lifted in one Vanuatuan village.

"First time we went out there [in 2007] there was one light. When we went out there last time it was lit up like the North Shore ... We're starting to see some of the workers who have been here six, eight or 10 seasons. They've got basic needs sorted and looking at setting up businesses there."

The Ministry for Social Development said at the end of September there were 7910 people receiving a jobseeker benefit in Northland.