‘It was like a HELL for me’
Trouble for flood of migrant workers
Filipino painter Ronald Lanto’s two years working on the Christchurch rebuild has been much happier than an 18-month stint in Saudi Arabia. In the Middle East he spent up to 10 hours a day painting houses, and another two in his employer’s market gardens. The overtime was unpaid and he quit after his wages were withheld for three months. ‘‘It was like a hell for me.’’ On his arrival in Christchurch, labour agency Turbo Staff provided him with accommodation, right down to bedding and cooking utensils.
Lanto plays for the company basketball team and took classes to improve his English, but it was hard being away from his family. ‘‘I’ve been working overseas for more than 13 years. I don’t get to see my kids grow.’’
That’s about to change thanks to the company savings scheme that helped pay permanent residency fees for his family and on Monday wife Lyndsay and children Kevin, 15, and Kailyn, 4, arrive to join him. His long term goal is to retrain as an auto mechanic.
EMPLOYERS TOLD TO BE CHOOSEY
More than 30,000 work visas have been approved for Canterbury since the earthquakes and the Philippines quickly became the top source of migrant labour for the city’s rebuild.
But managing the intricacies of offshore recruitment has proved a steep learning curve for the local construction industry.
Lana Hart from the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce skilled migrant business service said those hiring migrant workers for the Auckland building boom could learn a lot from the Christchurch experience.
She advises employers to get involved in recruitment right from the outset, to be choosey about offshore recruitment partners, and to ensure offshore qualifications are transferable.
‘‘These were some of the key things some companies got wrong at the beginning. They were taking whoever came along, or they trusted the offshore recruitment assessments and recruitment to be done ethically and transparently. Sometimes it wasn’t, and the end result wasn’t a positive one.’’
Christchurch-based Leighs Construction, which also has some big projects on the go in Auckland, runs practical assessments in the Philippines to verify applicants’ carpentry skills.
Managing director Anthony Leighs said ‘‘X-factor Leighs style’’ is staged in a leased Manila workshop.
About 100 applicants at a time are given plans, instructions, materials and New Zealand tools to complete specified tasks.
‘‘The tasks are quite carefully considered so what we get out of them is a real understanding of their carpentry skills, their genuine ability to take instructions and to pick up a tool they have not used before and adapt to it. ‘‘
SHOCKS IN STORE
More than 300 Canterbury employers have attended Hart’s seminars on managing a more culturally diverse work force, and she said it was important to prepare Filipino workers for the more egalitarian nature of Kiwi work places.
‘‘In other countries where they’ve worked, like China and the Middle East, you don’t treat everyone the same, you treat Filipinos differently.’’
The lack of tight supervision could be a shock too.
‘‘That’s a big challenge for Filipino trades people who come and work in an environment where there is not the level of instruction and detail they’re used to.’’
Many Filipinos are devout Roman Catholics and some found the colourful building site language demeaning and sacrilegious.
‘‘We’ve heard of Filipino workers walking off a work site, sometimes
in groups, because the swearing and shouting got too much, so it’s something to consider when deciding who they work with.’’
Hart said some employers had not anticipated the level of support needed for migrant workers from a completely different culture.
As well as providing housing in a city where accommodation was at a premium, it extended to helping them get an IRD number, set up a bank account, buy a cell phone, and organise Skype so they could communicate with family back in the Philippines.
Some companies paid for English language lessons, and assisted workers to get New Zealand drivers’ licences. Filipinos make up most of the 130 migrant workers on Turbo Staff’s books and it translated a driving guide into Tagalog as well as laying on a driving tutor.
The labour agency also holds regular social events, runs its own internal basketball competition and fields a team in the city-wide Filipino basketball league.
Managing director Ihaka Rongonui said the Turbo Staff savings scheme – ‘‘we match them dollar for dollar’’ – helped workers cover the cost of getting permanent residency for themselves and their families.
He said said the big investment in pastoral care paid off, especially as competition for skilled staff heated up.
‘‘To offset the extra effort you end up with a worker who’s going to be loyal and work hard every day.’’
Rongonui said he tried to employ Kiwis if at all possible because flights and other recruitment costs amounted to between $7500 and $9000 per migrant worker. ‘‘It’s convenient, but it’s not cheap.’’
Turbo Staff’s Auckland regional manager Mike Milligan believes the city will need thousands of migrant workers to cope with the volume of work there.
He previously worked with Filipino migrant labour in the Middle East where unscrupulous employers withheld employees’ passports, reneged on agreements to fly them home, and supplied substandard accommodation. That level of exploitation is not seen here but Milligan said some Auckland agencies were not providing secure employment and support to integrate, which led to Filipino workers returning home.
The tasks are carefully considered so we get a real understanding.