NZAS on hunt for staff
Southland’s biggest employer is on the hunt for more workers.
New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) chief executive and general manager Chris Blenkiron said attracting and retaining staff at the Tiwai smelter near Bluff was a challenge, and the company would launch a recruitment campaign in coming weeks.
‘‘Like all employers in New Zealand, NZAS is operating in a very tight labour market where attracting and retaining staff is a challenge,’’ he said.
‘‘This has been compounded by ongoing disruptions from Covid-19 and other illnesses.’’
Additional shifts were available for staff to maintain safe operations of the smelter while it worked to address the workforce pressures, Blenkiron said.
Blenkiron did not address how many additional workers were needed at the plant and in what departments.
The smelter company has traditionally employed about 1000 people.
The Tiwai staff shortage mirrored the problems of many other businesses in the south. Some businesses were shutting temporarily, reducing hours or sending out SOS messages to competitors as they juggled workforce
shortages. Many were dealing with staff illness as numbers of southern Covid-19 cases climbed.
Southland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Sheree Carey said the uncertainty surrounding Tiwai’s future in recent years would not have helped its job security for staff.
‘‘I can understand why they [Tiwai workers] have been looking at other avenues . . . and there’s other jobs out there for them to go to.’’
There were not enough people to do the work across multiple industries in Southland, Carey said.
The rate of unemployment in the region was 2.6% as at March 31, its
lowest since 2013, and Southland’s gross domestic product was above the national average, showing business growth in the region.
‘‘So the growth is there but you can’t grow any more without the people to do the work,’’ Carey said.
It was an employee’s market and Carey advised employers to ‘‘do what you can for them now’’ before workers were picked up by other companies.
Carey suggested that the region’s labour market may get even tighter in the next year as a new hotel, shops and eateries opened in Invercargill’s CBD and major industries looked to come on board in the south.