Backpacker jobs probe welcomed
An experienced Christchurch backpacker host is pleased officials are investigating alleged abuses of work exchange schemes for international visitors.
Through the HelpX website Linda Constable has housed and fed many travellers in exchange for working up to four hours a day around her property.
She is glad the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is looking into alleged exploitation of board-for-wages deals offered by businesses because guests had told her stories of motels, backpacker hostels, farms and vineyards using them as unpaid labour.
Constable said one example was a young Taiwanese woman who did pruning at a vineyard.
‘‘They didn’t give her gloves. Her hands were all blistered and cut, it wasn’t a good look.’’
Constable said schemes such as HelpX and Willing Workers on Organic Farms (Wwoof) were a great way for visitors to meet real Kiwis and most hosts were in it for the right reasons.
‘‘It would be a tragedy if such cultural experiences were affected by people rorting the scheme and using such travellers as non-paid labour that their businesses would normally employ people for.’’
Youth Hostel Association (YHA) chief executive Mark Wells also welcomed the MBIE investigation and said he had raised the issue of unpaid labour at a number of accommodation forums over the years.
He said the hostels YHA managed occasionally used volunteers for special projects, such as spring cleaning, but they did not employ them in lieu of frontline staff.
However, there was heavy dependence on volunteer labour throughout the rest of the backpacker sector.
Labour Inspectorate southern regional manager Stuart Lumsden said the investigation, prompted by about 12 complaints, hinged on the definition of ‘‘employment’’ as opposed to voluntary work.
‘‘We have people saying ‘hey, I was working eight hours a day, I was being put in charge of things, I was working with a chainsaw without safety training [or] any safety equipment,’ so that’s a real concern to us.’’
Wwoof New Zealand director Andrew Strange said MBIE had approached him about four hosts it was concerned with, but none of them had ever been registered members of his organisation.
Strange said Wwoofers worked a maximum of six hours a day, received free accommodation and meals, and were treated as part of the family. There was a strong educational and cultural component to the scheme.