Employers’ seasonal worker fears

A potential decline in seasonal workers is one of the biggest concerns for employers in the top of the south as coronavirus spreads globally, the Government has been told.

Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford was in Nelson yesterday to talk with business and community leaders about the impact of Covid-19 on the regional economy.

Twyford met representatives from councils, iwi and local industry, including fishing, forestry, horticulture, viticulture and tourism.

He said that while industries in the region were currently in good shape, there were still a lot of unknowns around the effects of the virus on the global economy.

Twyford said that from his discussions, he concluded there was not a compelling case for direct government intervention at the top of the south at the moment.

He said the biggest concern for employers had yet to be felt. This included the availability of seasonal workers in horticulture, fishing and related industries.

‘‘It’s a highly seasonal workforce here. Some industries are quite reliant on working holiday people and workers from overseas, whether that’s in the grape harvest, or hoki season for Sealord.

‘‘[Those pressures] may be exacerbated by the fact that those industries rely on those workers coming in for a short period – if international travel seizes up, that will put more pressure on them.’’

Twyford said the Government was committed to working with local industries to see what it could do for them to get the workers they needed. However, it was hesitant to intervene with blanket subsidies for affected industries at this time.

‘‘What we’re looking at is tailor-made regional responses. The last thing we want to do is launch an untargeted wage subsidy programme that has the effect of slowing down the movement of workers from one industry to another.’’

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said that if skilled operators from one sector were not being fully utilised, there could be opportunities to find employment in related sectors in the region.

Twyford said that overall, the region’s economy remained strong and was well diversified.

Export logging had probably been the hardest-hit industry, but it had not been affected as severely as on the East Coast, he said.

While wine exports had not been affected, and NZ King Salmon and Sealord’s exports had coped well with the disruption to the Chinese market, there were still a lot of question marks about the long-term impact of coronavirus, Twyford said.

‘‘The thing with Covid-19 is the unknown – we don’t know how its going to play out.’’

He said that while the Government had been focused on the disruption to the Chinese market in February, there was now a scenario where more overseas markets could be affected.

‘‘What we don’t know is as the virus spreads globally, what that will do to global demand for our industries, or if there is a scenario if we get community transmission in New Zealand, what the scale will be and how that will effect our local economy.’’

O’Connor said it was important to have discussions at a regional level sooner rather than later.

‘‘There’s many questions we can’t answer right now, but we’re committed to working with industry and community leaders to make sure we can when the time arises.’’

‘‘Industries rely on those workers coming in for a short period.’’

Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford