Worker shortage slows harvests

A nationwide database of seasonal horticulture jobs and available workers is needed, says Fruitgrowers Association executive officer Dianne Vesty.

Ms Vesty, who is in a Wellington industry group looking at seasonal labour problems, said the association had contacted Work and Income, but was having little success filling jobs such as fruit picking, pruning and vine-tying.

She had advertised 54 jobs in Hawkes Bay, and received only 11 replies.

The start of thinning this week had soaked up seasonal labour, and some Hawkes Bay workers had also switched to asparagus after an appeal from Canterbury asparagus grower Peter Falloon, who recently mowed crops into the ground because he did not have the workers to harvest them.

Work and Income's East Coast regional commissioner, Lindsay Scott, said the department had 2500 unemployed people on its books, 1200 fewer than last year.

Ms Vesty said hostels were reporting drops in backpacker numbers, and the cleanup of operators who once employed illegal workers would also have an effect. .

"Where we had a lot of people working in the industry illegally they are not there now and we need to have a legal alternative," she said.

"We need to look at the future and how we are going to manage it - I don't see long-term immigration as an answer."

Pipfruit NZ chairman Ian Palmer said the industry's recruitment problem was heightened by seasonal fluctuations, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find staff.

Associate Social Development and Employment Minister Rick Barker has said the industry needed to recruit more actively overseas for legal workers.

In Marlborough, the wine industry is applauding a move to increase the number of working-holiday visas by 9000 over two years.

The booming industry has been plagued by labour shortfalls in recent years. Illegal labour, fast-tracked working visas and a seasonal co-ordinator have all been put to work as a result of labour shortages.

"Do we need the workers? Absolutely," said Marlborough Winegrowers spokesman Stuart Smith.

The Government has announced that the number of overseas holidaymakers allowed to work in New Zealand would increase from July next year to at least 40,000.

The limit is now 31,000 people, from 22 countries.

They must be aged between 18 and 30 and childless, and can work in New Zealand for up to a year.

Immigration minister Paul Swain said getting New Zealanders into work was the Government's top priority, but holidaymakers created more jobs than they took.

Because New Zealand had only 3.8 per cent unemployment, they were a good source of temporary labour, and also put more than $300 million a year into the economy, he said.

Almost a quarter of last year's working holidayers were employed in seasonal industries such as horticulture and agriculture.

Mr Smith said people on working holidays made up a significant proportion of the vineyard labour force, and they tended to be good workers.

The overseas workers also could be valuable champions for New Zealand and its wine when they returned to their homeland, he said.

Viticulture New Zealand operations manager Andrew Arbuckle said the increase in working-holiday visas would help in the short term.

But he said there would have to be some way of letting travellers know where the work was.

"There is work in different areas at different times," he said.

"It would be good to come up with some way of getting people from one area to another or letting them know when work would be available in different areas."

Mr Arbuckle is part of a working party trying to stamp out illegal practices in vineyards and look at long-term labour issues.

The group says 3000 workers will be required in Marlborough's vineyards this year, a number that will grow as vineyards continue to develop at a rapid pace.

In the pruning season just finished, about 900 workers were foreigners, and Work and Income processed 580 variations to work permits for foreigners on visitors permits to work in Marlborough's vines.

Fewer than 200 people are registered unemployed in Marlborough.

Other changes to the working-holiday scheme include removing the cap on the number of applicants from Britain, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands coming to New Zealand, in recognition that these countries are offering the same arrangement for New Zealanders.

British working holidaymakers will be able to stay for up to two years and work for 12 months.

From the end of next year, an extra 10,000 places will be reserved for young people from Canada, the United States, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, and Italy.

Work and play

* The number of overseas holidaymakers allowed to work in New Zealand will increase from July next year to at least 40,000.

* The present limit is 31,000 people from 22 countries, aged between 18 and 30 and childless. They can work in New Zealand for up to a year.

- NZPA