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Some fishing companies are being accused of bypassing qualified and competent New Zealanders in favor of bringing in foreign crews who will work in harsher conditions for less money.
Fishing boat (file image). Source: istock.com
By Tim Brown of rnz.co.nz
One executive in the fishing industry says that’s silly and that there simply aren’t enough trained and experienced Kiwis willing to do the job.
Last month, the government granted border waivers for 570 foreign workers to operate deep-sea trawlers off New Zealand.
Those boats would have been moored if the workers had not been found and the fishing companies said they needed to be manned by foreigners.
However, a naval engineer with more than a decade of experience at sea told RNZ that when he applied for work, he often did not even receive a call.
“It’s not just the fishing industry, it’s also the oil and gas industry; the owner-operators of the vessels decide what that word ‘be qualified’ means,” he said.
“Usually when maritime employers have an advantage over Immigration or Maritime New Zealand or any of the other regulatory authorities, when they are looking to attract people, they say ‘well, these people have no experience in the type of vessels that we operate’ and they it turns into a trap because they don’t let you work on the ships to gain experience and then they use that as an excuse not to hire you. “
He said he wanted to go back to sea, and not necessarily just on a fishing boat, but companies across the merchant marine sector were bypassing New Zealanders because foreign workers tolerated harsher conditions for less pay, he said.
As an anecdote, he was not alone in his experience, he said.
New Zealand Trade Services Guild Secretary General Helen McAra said the reason for bringing in foreign crews was economic.
“They earn very low wages compared to New Zealand conditions. They come from third world countries that offer labor and I would be surprised if they reached New Zealand’s minimum wage,” he said.
He said successive governments had swept the problem under the rug, but the pandemic had brought it to light.
“This reliance on low-paid foreign labor has been going on for decades and initially the idea was for it to be a transitional measure as New Zealand’s workforce developed, but successive governments simply allowed the practice to continue, so that there was never a New Zealand workforce developed for these vessels. “
The union said that was why people like Vince Scully, who had more than four decades of experience at sea and was qualified to captain ships, were struggling to find work at sea.
Scully said companies were deliberately setting the bar too high for New Zealanders to enter the industry.
“That is the common problem. We have had it in the offshore industry in New Zealand for over 15 years,” he said.
“They will say a job is coming to New Zealand and they will ask for resumes and they will look at all the resumes and then they will ask for a higher bar than the locals have qualifications and then they will bring foreigners and foreigners don’t necessarily have the qualifications, they have less and are pay less. “
Sealord, Independent Fisheries and Maruha Nichiro teamed up to bring more than 400 workers from Russia and Ukraine to the manned trawlers.
The first half of that group arrived on a charter flight from Russia, a pandemic hotspot, earlier this month; some later tested positive for Covid-19 in controlled isolation.
Independent Fisheries CEO Mark Allison called claims that the industry was putting up barriers to kiwis so they could take advantage of cheap foreign labor as “silly.”
He admitted that the company’s only New Zealanders on board its vessels had observer duties, but said the reason they did not fill other duties on the vessels was because no New Zealanders had come forward.
The entire primary sector struggled to fill roles at the local level, he said.
“Whether you are an inshore fishing operator or a deep-sea factory vessel operator, there is a severe shortage of skilled, trained and drug-free kiwis that will go to sea,” he said.
RNZ requested an interview with Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash, but he refused.
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, who established the border exceptions, also did not respond to requests.
Allison said the industry had not created barriers for kiwis to come into use, but the Ministry of Primary Industries told RNZ that the offshore fishing industry has committed to removing them to pass border exceptions.
In response to a question about what guarantees the fishing industry gave the government on creating future pathways for New Zealanders to play the roles currently assumed by foreign fishermen, the Ministry of Primary Industries said: “The deep-sea fishing industry has committed to removing barriers for New Zealanders, including reviewing pay structures and business models, and significant investment in training and education. “
