Covid pushes out migrant workers
An agency that helps farms source overseas staff believes the
Covid-19 fallout is being used to manage migrant workers out of New Zealand.
Christiaan Arns, the managing director of Auckland-based Frenz, a recruitment and immigration agency for dairy farms, described the state of New Zealand’s immigration rules as a ‘‘complete shambles’’.
The short-term picture was clear, the pandemic has forced borders to close. But the medium to long-term outlook was confusing, Arns said.
‘‘The big issue is that for many farms with migrant workers, they are deemed to be unskilled or at lower skill levels.
‘‘For those people, the doors [borders] are shut completely and we’re unsure how this will play out in the future.’’
Arns said migrant workers on three-year visas, introduced in
2017, will have to leave New Zealand in August.
‘‘There’s no clarity from the Government about any exemptions, just silence from the minister [of immigration] that will ultimately reduce the level of migrants in the country.
‘‘I am wondering if that is the intended outcome, reduction of migrants by silence.’’
The Regions managing director Benjamin De’ Ath believed migrant workers represent the future of the New Zealand dairy industry. The Regions, based in Hamilton, helps with recruitment, immigration and pastoral care of dairy farm workers.
‘‘A lot of people are looking to retire or slow down from their dairy farms and they don’t have children to pass the farm to,’’ De’ Ath said.
‘‘So they are turning to the migrant community, people who have become managers or contract milkers, they are going to be the future of the industry.’’
De’Ath said there was a myth dairy farm jobs were low paid.
‘‘About 90 per cent of farms are paying north of the medium wage [$25.50 per hour] once people have ... experience. Farmers are savvy, to get and keep good staff they know you need to pay them well.’’
The Regions had 2200 people on working visas in New Zealand. It had 51 who were stuck overseas and 80 visas for firsttime entrants who were meant to arrive on June 1.
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said policy was being worked on to ‘‘sequence’’ the return of temporary visaholders who normally live in New Zealand.
‘‘There are many factors that need to be considered, including the employment of New Zealanders, the availability of managed isolation at the border and the availability of flights.’’
The country relied heavily on migrant workers and there needed to be a ‘‘transition’’ phase to bring Kiwis into jobs, LeesGalloway said.
Dairy NZ said there were 40 highly skilled migrant workers, in manager and assistant manager roles, waiting to return.
‘‘Our focus is getting those higher skilled workers who are considered critical to the farms they work on, and have been in New Zealand for 10 years or more, back into the country,’’ people team leader Jane Muir said.
There were plans to have ‘‘hundreds’’ of migrant workers arriving each month from March, when the borders closed, Muir said. ‘‘We have accepted that those migrants, who never worked in dairy, will not be coming now.
‘‘We have accepted that because we want to play our role in helping New Zealanders who don’t have jobs, into employment in dairy.’’
Dairy NZ launched its GoDairy campaign on June 24, which encourages Kiwis to look at dairy as a career. It involved a threeweek ‘‘farm-ready training course’’ to give people a taste of rural life.
‘‘As people work through those weeks, we hope they decide dairy farming looks like a great opportunity to get a job, and we have lots of jobs available.
‘‘If they decide it’s not for them, we don’t view that as a failure, but as an opportunity to see the crucial role dairy plays in the New Zealand economy.’’
Muir said moving more Kiwis into the farming sector would take years, rather than something that would happen overnight.
Pay rates (careers.govt.nz)
■ Dairy farm assistants: $42,000 to
$80,000.
■ Assistant dairy herd managers:
$48,000 to $88,000.
■ Dairy herd managers: $51,000 to
$90,000.
■ Dairy farm managers: $63,000 to
$160,000.
■ Operations managers in charge of large or multiple dairy farms:
$66,000 to $160,000.