Freebie labour slammed
A Labour Inspectorate probe into the illegal use of volunteer labour has found the practice is rife in the accommodation sector.
The inspectorate launched an investigation into such deals after receiving complaints from workers, and from businesses that felt competitors using freebie labour were getting an unfair advantage.
Over the past three months it has investigated 14 employers, and only two were found to be complying with the law.
In a statement issued yesterday, general manager George Mason warned businesses about disguising employees as ‘‘volunteers’’.
‘‘Businesses cannot evade their obligations as employers by calling their workers volunteers and then simply rewarding them with a bed in a dormitory, food and wi-fi rather than a fair wage,’’ he said.
‘‘When you take a closer look at some of these schemes where businesses have workers putting in as many as 32 hours per week cleaning linen, working reception, and vacuuming, many of them are blatantly employment relationships and they are taking advantage of these workers.’’
A number of infringement notices had been issued, but this decision was later reviewed and formal warnings issued instead. These firms would be revisited within six months.
One case was deemed serious enough to take to the Employment Relations Authority, Mason said
Businesses recruited travellers to work in exchange for accommodation by advertising on websites for schemes such as Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and Volunteer X.
Employers could deduct reasonable accommodation costs from wages provided it was agreed in writing and the deduction was made before wages were paid.
Brian Westwood, a spokesman for the Backpacker Youth and Adventure Tourism Association, said he understood some backpacker lodges fined as a result of the crackdown had been given more time to get their affairs in order, and their fines rescinded.
Using volunteers had been standard practice in the sector for decades, but ambiguity around board-for-wages arrangements had now been sorted, he said.