"Ripoff merchants" are preying on kiwifruit workers flocking to the Western Bay of Plenty district to join picking gangs, according to Tauranga's John Wright, a Citizens Advice Bureau volunteer.
He said today he had already had contact with two groups left in the lurch by sub-contractors.
Similar scams had surfaced during most picking seasons. This year they had begun earlier, Mr Wright said.
"The packhouses and kiwifruit contractors are not the problem. It is a few sub-contractors who hire people to pick. Then they either disappear or give their workers the sack after the job is done and keep the money. They do the same thing on the next job," Mr Wright said.
If the workers did not know the sub-contractor's name or address, they had no way of tracking them and were left destitute.
That is what happened to Paul Shepherd and Vivienne Pourewa. An employment broker in Napier's Work and Income (Winz) office told them about work in Bay of Plenty while they were picking apples.
The couple came to Papamoa with six others who were on the unemployment benefit. They began work on a Waihi orchard last Friday.
They put in four days' work and picked 256 bins of kiwifruit, which should have earned them at least $2560. They were dismissed on Monday afternoon without being paid.
"We had no transport and no petrol for the van. We hitch-hiked back here (to Papamoa).
"We've got four children with my mother in Napier. We have to pay rent there. We've got no food and we don't really know what to do," Ms Pourewa said.
"I hold Winz responsible. They should make sure the jobs are genuine," she said.
The other six people will planned to stay in the district and hoped to find work packing.
"I reckon that Winz should take the names and addresses of employers offering this sort of work and somehow make sure all these bods get written contracts.
"I'd like to know how much IRD (Inland Revenue Department) is losing because I'll bet these guys aren't paying tax. They just take the money and run," Mr Wright said.
Orchardists are paid about $22 an 18-bushell bin for picking. Trucking firms take $4 of that for transport and packhouses about $1 a bin for the use of bin trailers.
Contractors decide how much to pay workers from the remaining $17 but most pickers receive about $15 a bin.
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Kiwifruit scam hits workers' wages
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