Union welcomes support for Chinese builders

More than 40 Chinese builders caught in alleged ‘‘bonded labour’’ are having the conditions of their visas reviewed by Immigration NZ.

The men were recruited by National Personnel Ltd (NPL) to work in New Zealand on one to three-year visas.

However, the men said that since arriving in the country last year they had not been given the fulltime hours or the wages they had been promised.

Immigration NZ (INZ) confirmed they were investigating the recruiter behind the men’s visas, Peter Li, also known as Wenshan Li.

The dispute came to head after 28 of the men were trespassed from a residential property owned by NPL where they had been living.

After the men were evicted from the Takinini address, NPL said in a statement the men had been allowed to stay at the address on compassionate grounds and had been provided more than $20,000 in free accommodation, but declined to comment further.

Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said he was pleased INZ and the union representing the men, Unite Union, were working together to help the workers.

‘‘Exploitation takes many forms, from outright slavery and the serious undermining of an individual’s personal freedom through to the underpayment of wages or the failure to meet guaranteed minimum leave entitlements. All are inexcusable,’’ he said.

Unite Union national director Mike Treen described the case as one of ‘‘bonded labour’’.

The workers, some of whom had decades of experience in the construction industry, felt NPL were not upholding their end of the bargain and they wanted to change their visas so they could work for a different employer.

However, the conditions of their visas meant they were tied to NPL.

Treen said it was ‘‘pretty fantastic’’ that INZ were willing to assess and potentially vary the conditions of the visas to allow the men to seek other employment.

‘‘We have job offers for virtually everyone, it’s great,’’ he said.