New Zealand Master Contractors Programme Report
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Authors
Date
2007
Type
Monograph
Fields of Research
Abstract
During the early 1990's the horticultural industry transitioned through to a
new phase regarding its labour employment practices. As a result of increased
governmental employment compliance issues and a decrease in the financial
returns to orchards, employers who prior to this were predominantly growers or post
harvest facilities, retracted from the employment of orchard workers. The result of
this transition was the industry beginning to rely heavily of teams of field staff who
had organised themselves into working groups.
These groups were frequently formed on a very casual basis. The leader of
these groups, the Contractor, was often inexperienced at business practice and
employment matters. The ease at which these 'Contractors' were able to form
companies and employ their staff has proven in many cases to be detrimental to the
horticultural industry due to their poor business and employment practices.
As with the pipfruit and viticulture sectors, the kiwifruit industry has worked
reasonably harmoniously with these groups over the past 15 years, however as
time has progressed an increasing trend of non-compliant behaviour has emerged. While a reasonable proportion of the contractors working within the kiwifruit
industry are doing so in a compliant nature, the industry still falls victim to the
extremely ruinous publicity of bad headlines. The sheer nature and increasing frequency of these headlines, let alone the
enormity of the non-compliant behaviour exposed, have compounded many issues
for the horticultural sector culminating in a public attitude towards the contracting
industry of distrust and caution. This attitude along with the current low
unemployment rate has seen staffing
levels in the horticultural sector at an all
time low. Employment on orchards or
for that matter within the post-harvest
facilities is currently seen by many jobseekers
and school leavers as only a
temporary solution to their
unemployment.
Compliant contractors working
within the horticultural and viticultural
sectors are becoming increasingly
frustrated at the limitations being
imposed on them due to the activities of their less compliant peers. These
contractors are essentially labour contractors and the work involved by their staff is,
despite general perception, skilled and production orientated. For a contractor to
operate efficiently and produce work of high quality, which will relate directly to
productivity, staff of a reasonable standard need to be attracted to their businesses.
Therefore there is a necessity to lift the perception of the contracting
industry to enable a wider workforce to be attracted and to upskill and retain both
the workforce and many of the contractors themselves.
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