Immigration minister hints at further visa extensions to get next year's grapes in

Thursday, 10 September 2020

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi says employers need to first look at ways to fill labour shortages with Kiwis.

The immigration minister has hinted that visas for overseas workers could be extended for a third time, which could push their expiry dates out past next year’s harvest.

Meanwhile, during the wine industry’s downtime, overseas vineyard workers in Marlborough who made sure this year’s vintage went ahead remain out of work, relying on handouts from Red Cross.

The organisation had dished out $31,000 in food vouchers in Marlborough by the start of September.

The Department of Internal Affairs, which looked after accommodation support, had handed out $15,000 across 49 applications, as of Thursday.

* Red Cross food and accommodation vouchers for Marlborough's overseas wine workers tops $10k

A skilled workforce was needed in the wine industry for a few months of the year in order to complete the annual grape harvest.

* Wine worker launches petition to ease visa conditions as concerns grow for next harvest

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, who was in Marlborough on Thursday, said with borders closed it was going to be “no surprise” that sectors such as the viticulture and horticulture industries were going to struggle to get the workforce they needed for harvest.

“We are constantly looking at the visa settings … to give some flexibility there or an extension,' Faafoi said.

The Chief Executive of New Zealand Wine Growers Phillip Gregan says grapes will have to stay on the vines while the safety of vineyard workers can be assured.

“I think you will probably see some announcements on some of that soon, in order for the next harvest or the next picking to happen and for there to be as many people working in orchards and vineyards to make sure that things are picked in time.”

Many of the workers seeking financial support were on essential skills visas, which linked them to their job title and employer. While they worked the grape harvest, that work had since run out and their visa did not allow them to work for another company.

In July, the Government announced visas expiring in September 2020 would be pushed out to March 2021.

Wine Marlborough's Vance Kerslake said the industry would like to use the “skilled and experienced” people still in the region from the 2020 grape harvest next year.

With New Zealand’s grape harvest normally kicking off around March, the industry was already worried about filling labour shortages.

Minister Faafoi acknowledged that while work had run out, there would be a need for a skilled labour force come harvest next year.

“If there are locals who need the work then we want to make sure that employers are prioritising them as well as using those who might still be attached to them with essential skills visas,” Faafoi said.

About 6500 RSE workers remained in the country, about half the usual work force.

“But also we have to very much push hard, that if there are New Zealanders that are willing and able to do that work, that employers do as much as they possibly can, that have traditionally relied on a migrant workforce, they need to start looking at how they might fill that labour gap with people already here in New Zealand,” Faafoi said.

Wine Marlborough advocacy manager Vance Kerslake said wineries would recruit and train a local workforce for vintage 2021, but in order to do that, the industry would like to use the “skilled and experienced” people still in the region from last harvest.

“We need them [overseas workers] to assist with the training, health and safety and the supervision, and we’re very much hoping that the Government will relax the visa conditions for those people to work in the industry at that critical time,” Kerslake said.

“These people don’t want to be on Red Cross welfare support, they’d much rather be contributing and paying taxes.

“I think in keeping with the Government’s message about being kind, it would be a lot better for everyone if these people were able to work and support themselves through to next vintage and to have certainty around that.”

Faafoi said about 6500 RSE workers remained in the country, about half the amount usually employed through the scheme.

“We’ve been speaking with the likes of the horticulture sector and Federated Farmers about seeing if they can work together to be able to shift people around the country if need be, given the different times of harvests or the peak times for their sectors,” Faafoi said.

“Again we’ve been asking them and a lot of those sectors are working to make sure they can get as many local people into those jobs.

“That can be challenging, especially in a tight timeframe, but the border is closed, and we don’t necessarily see the other 7000 that would usually come into the country coming in any time soon for harvest.”