Faster action wanted on overseas workers

WELLINGTON: Growers are frustrated with the Government’s slow decisionmaking on how many overseas workers they can employ — saying their crops will be left to rot yet again.

A group of 12 businesses with early stage crops such as strawberries and asparagus have written an open letter to the Immigration Minister in ‘‘desperation’’.

The picking season has started at Mangere strawberry farm Perrys Berrys, but owner Francie Perry still does not know how many overseas workers she can employ and said it could take months to get visas approved.

She said if she did not get enough overseas workers in time, the fruit would go unpicked.

‘‘Last year we had to stop at the beginning of Christmas week because our fruit was too soft and too red and too risky to ship even locally.’’

As a result she lost some permanent staff and 250,000 strawberries were left rotting on the ground, Ms Perry said.

Ms Perry was one of the 12 growers who signed the open letter to the Immigration Minister.

Act New Zealand leader David Seymour, who has been campaigning on behalf of Ms Perry and other growers, said those who signed the letter employed 2500 people.

He said there simply were not enough New Zealand workers willing to pick and that the Government should follow Australia’s approach.

‘‘They don’t have a cap on the number of workers. They allow the amount of workers that employers can afford to pay, if they meet high standards of labour conditions,’’ he said.

Immigration Minister Iain LeesGalloway said it was a problem he was looking to address in a refresh of the recognised seasonal employer scheme.

‘‘It’s a policy which is 12 years old.

‘‘It’s never been looked at over those 12 years. I think it is time to look at opportunities to make it work better,’’ he said.

When questioned why a decision on overseas workers was not made sooner, Mr LeesGalloway said the ministry had not received the information it needed from the industry until late July.

However, Ms Perry said it was the businesses which were not harvesting until February which did not get their information in on time.

She said strawberry and asparagus growers just wanted to be given the same chance as those growers, so early harvesters should be a made a priority. — RNZ