Streamlined visa ‘much needed’ for migrant workers
Naveed Singh must be one of New Zealand’s most highly qualified dairy workers.
The Waimate resident, who started working as a contract milker in 2007, has science and law degrees, as well as a tourism qualification.
He is just one of more than 5500 migrant workers shoring up the dairy industry from as far afield as the Philippines, Brazil and India, making up 15 per cent of the workforce.
‘‘I never worked in the dairy industry before I arrived. I started working in tourism for a bit in India, and you get to a point where you want to do something on your own but unless you have got capital you can’t do much.
‘‘So I came here to study tourism but I found I enjoyed farming,’’ Singh said.
Now married to Dutch immigrant Ellen van der Velden, who also works in the industry, Singh is keeping his options open about his future work prospects.
While he would like to stay in New Zealand, he does not want to own a farm.
According to the most recent 2018 Federated Farmers remuneration report, the mean salary for the lowest paid dairy worker, a farm assistant, is $42,114.
A herd manager earns $55,000, farm manager $69,000 and operations manager $78,000.
However, the weekly hours worked by permanent dairy staff had risen from 45 to 49 hours, compared with the 2016 survey.
Dairynz chief executive Dr Tim Mackle said Singh was one of the existing migrant employees who were both highly valued and much needed on farms.
Along with the Meat Industry Association (MIA), Horticulture NZ, and Federated Farmers, Mackle welcomed the Government’s move to streamline the employer-assisted work visa process to help businesses and farms fill skills shortages.
MIA chief executive Tim Ritchie said the meat processing sector was about 2000 employees short, or 8 per cent of the workforce, and had to recruit from overseas to fill the gap.
The industry had come to an agreement on how the meat industry would attract New Zealanders, improve productivity, offer training and continue to uphold employment standards.
The sector employed 25,000 people and was New Zealand’s largest food manufacturer.
Because meat processors are mainly based in the regions, residential accommodation is relatively easily available for people coming from overseas.
Horticulture NZ said the proposed changes would make it more straightforward to hire skilled workers from overseas to work in areas where there were few New Zealanders available for the work. They recognised the need to employ New Zealanders wherever possible but it would allow access to workers, particularly at peak planting and harvest.
Hortnz chief executive Mike Chapman said the changes would take effect over the next couple of years as the detail was worked out.
Federated Farmers employment spokesman Chris Lewis congratulated the Government on the simpler and streamlined temporary work visa process.
By ditching the ANZSCO skill level classifications, there was much greater scope for a migrant worker to achieve career progression on farms.
However, the Migrant Workers Association said the overhaul of work visas had failed to remove a clause that meant they could be treated like modern-day slaves.
Anu Kaloti said it was likely workers would continue to be exploited as they would only be able to work for a single employer. ‘‘If they wanted to attach a certain occupation, or a person’s visa to a region, or to an industry sector, that still is manageable and workable.
‘‘But attaching a person’s visa to an employer is basically just modern-day slavery.’’
The changes will be implemented gradually from next month and will be in place by 2021.