Reject call for migrant bus drivers, Govt urged
The Government should reject a national bus company’s request to fill 110 bus driver jobs with migrant workers, a bus driver union says.
Ritchies Transport Holdings made a request to Immigration New Zealand on March 3 seeking permission to hire overseas labour to fill 80 bus and coach driver roles for Auckland, 15 for Dunedin and 15 for Queenstown.
Because bus drivers are not on the Government’s skill shortage list, Ritchies must obtain permission from Immigration NZ in the form of an Approval in Principle to fill the vacancies with overseas workers.
To be successful, Ritchies would need to demonstrate that it could not find suitable workers in New Zealand.
Ritchies director Andrew Ritchie said it employed about 1400 bus drivers but it ‘‘always wants more’’.
Finding talent was a struggle because of ‘‘enormous’’ growth in public transport throughout New Zealand in the past 12 to 18 months, leading to a national shortage of bus drivers, he said.
However, First Union transport and logistics secretary Jared Abbott said if anything there was an oversupply of bus drivers in New Zealand.
‘‘We’ve probably got more bus drivers than we need.’’ Abbott said. ‘‘To call it a bus driver shortage is ridiculous.’’
Bus drivers did not want to work for Ritchies because it was known as a low-paying company, he said. It recently won new contracts that were tendered at a price so low it required drivers to be paid a wage that was not attractive to local talent, he said.
The Government should reject Ritchies’ application, he said.
Ritchie disputed the suggestion it was simply after cheap labour.
‘‘It’s not about batting down wages or any of that nonsense,’’ Ritchie said.
He would not discuss what kind of pay drivers could expect.
It had advertised in New Zealand for drivers and also worked with Work and Income to try to fill the roles, he said. ‘‘This isn’t the wholly and only way to recruit staff, this is just another way to get people into the industry.’’
In the past Ritchies had made applications for overseas workers to fill engineering jobs, he said. This was the first time it had sought approval to fill bus driver jobs with overseas workers.
‘‘We certainly do employ local people and lots of them, and that’s our first preference without a doubt.’’
Drivers would work a minimum of 40 hours a week and could work up to 55 hours if they wanted, he said.
Most of the were for urban muter routes. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said he would not comment on a live Approval in Principle process.
Earlier this month, the Government declared a regional labour shortage of fruit pickers in Hawke’s Bay, meaning overseas visitors who did not have a work visa would be able to apply for a variation to their visitor’s visa allowing them to undertake seasonal work in the horticulture and viticulture industries for six weeks.
The declaration would run from March 12 until April 6.
Earlier this year the issue of migrant labour hit headlines after Chinese construction company Fu Wah announced it was wanting to bring up to 200 tradespeople from China to Auckland to help build its $200 million Auckland hotel development. roles com-