Alliance a dire hirer?

The Otago-Southland Meat Workers’ Union says hundreds of Southlanders are being turned down for the 100 jobs that Alliance is now seeking to fill with overseas workers at its Lorneville and Makarewa plants.

This suggests one of two things; either the calibre of southern applicants is distressingly bad or the company is wilfully cold-shouldering willing and competent applicants to bring in more, let’s say, biddable migrants.

One way or another something is seriously wrong here, judging from union secretary Gary Davis’ figures that of 1000 applicants for jobs at Lorneville only 400 had been successful.

When it comes to testing these two theories, it’s not especially helpful that the company won’t share its employment criteria because it is ‘‘commercially sensitive’’.

This reduces the sensitive Alliance to fairly non-specific protestations when Davis cites some pretty ugly allegations, such as people who have passed medical and fitness tests being discriminated against because of age ( Some are over 50).

The union also points, albeit with the qualification ‘‘’possibly’’, to rejections on the basis of past injuries and existing ailments and the company applying fitness tests and employment conditions that are ‘‘too tough’’.

All very subjective, in the absence of specifics. And – getting rapidly less sympathetic here – the union cites drug testing issues.

The company’s tests pick up cannabis users more readily than meth users because cannabinoids stay in the system longer.

You don’t look impressed.

Neither should you.

Cannabis in the system is no trivial issue when it comes to safety in the workplace and the fact that meth is more rapacious in its capacity to rapidly damage doesn’t gives the dope user a case for leniency.

The union favours saliva testing rather than the existing urine tests, on the grounds that it can detect any drug use within 12 hours.

Does that really suffice? Remember, what matters isn’t so much the supremely even-handed treatment of drug users, but the actual detection of habits that impair workplace performance and endanger safety.

More broadly, this country has systems in place to test the legitimacy of Alliances’ claim of serious recruitment problems in spite of running nationwide campaigns to attract workers.

An application is before Immigration New Zealand and the union will be opposing it.

And yes, the union is also entitled to acknowledgment that opposing migrant intakes isn’t its utterly implacable default setting.

It supported Silver Fern Farms Finegand plant’s application for more workers because it accepted the difficulties of getting staff to South Otago.

We must reject with blows and curses any suggestion that any company, large or small, should lower its recruitment standards on the basis that it just has to make the best of whatever’s available locally, regardless of the standard of the jobseeker pool.

And we must be equally dismissive of the unworthy notion that to be out of work in a time of low unemployment means, in and of itself, that a person is unacceptable as an employee.

Whatever the Immigration NZ ruling is, it will point to a significant problem, either with a major employer or with a workforce.

‘‘this country has systems in place to test the legitimacy of Alliances’ claim of serious recruitment problems.’’