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

Sunday, 26 July 2020

Maria Eugenia Blanco, from Argentina, worked Marlborough’s grape harvest. She’s one of many now unemployed.

Three months ago, Maria Eugenia Blanco was working 12-hour shifts and considered “essential”.

Now she’s having to live off her savings.

Blanco, from Argentina, has worked three grape harvests in New Zealand.

This season, the winery she worked for kept her on two months longer than her original contract, however, that employment had since finished and Blanco was without a job, but unable to get home due to a lack of flights.

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.

* Immigration to essential harvest workers: go home

* Wine industry worried it won't have enough skilled labour for next harvest

“It’s been quite exhausting,” she said. “Every day I am looking at jobs, and I need to move, the house I’m living in is being sold.

“I’m thinking about it all the time, you’re never relaxing.”

Her “essential skills” visa tied her to her employer and job title, which meant she was unable to work a different job in the region.

New Zealand Red Cross said many applicants seeking financial support were seasonal vineyard workers.

“I don’t think Immigration have an obligation to open our visas, but if you have the jobs then why not change our conditions,” Blanco said.

“I understand Kiwis need to be given the jobs first, that’s OK, but there are still jobs out there that they [Kiwis] aren't taking.”

While Blanco had savings to support herself for now, other overseas workers were not as fortunate.

Many overseas grape harvest workers are stuck in New Zealand, but unable to work because of visa restrictions.

The Red Cross in Marlborough had handed out close to $10,000 in basic living vouchers to “about” 16 overseas wine workers this month.

The organisation was drafted in to support overseas workers stranded in Marlborough with no jobs and no way home.

Many in the region, who worked through harvest 2020, were on an essential skills visa which was extended until September 25 earlier this year. Earlier this month, the Government announced a further six-month extension.

Wine Marlborough general manager Marcus Pickens said the visa extension was a “broad brush” approach, and did not help seasonal workers stuck in Marlborough.

Those who had already sought support would also be eligible to do so again next month.

New Zealand Red Cross visitor care regional lead for Marlborough Trudy Langford said they knew those who had already sought support reflected “just a fraction” of people in the region who may be eligible.

“We hope that people who are in need of assistance hear about this support in the coming days,” Langford said.

“Many of these applicants are or were vineyard workers. People are facing serious financial hardship due to their work, whether on a vineyard or elsewhere, drying up or finishing entirely.

“Some have also lost their accommodation and are now living in cramped, shared rooms, and are finding things tough.

“We are particularly concerned for the mental wellbeing of people, she said.”

Wine Marlborough general manager Marcus Pickens said it was unlikely harvest workers would have maintained employment with the company they worked for during harvest.

Hunter's Wines managing director Jane Hunter said they were fortunate to have a bottling line, which allowed them to keep their overseas workers employed until they could get home.

“That work is always seasonal, it stops at the end of harvest. That’s exactly why we need these people at certain times in the year,” Pickens said.

“Unfortunately the work doesn’t go on within the winery through this time, but there are other jobs we could occupy with these workers.”

He said the extension to temporary visas was “broad brush”.

“There has been a lot of confusion, people are thinking ‘great there’s been some changes’ but it’s disappointing, unfortunately it doesn’t give any better status to anyone here [Marlborough],” he said.

“These [visa] changes probably are benefiting a number of people across the country, just not the people in the wine industry.”

Hunter's Wines managing director Jane Hunter said they were lucky to have a bottling line which allowed them to keep their overseas vintage staff employed. The last of their overseas vintage team were able to get home two weeks ago, she said.

“It varies from winery to winery because a lot of them don’t have the bottling and labelling that they could move them to,” Hunter said.

“If you have contract grower vineyards, they organise their own pruning, so there also may not have been that opportunity to keep people on.

“We also have a small team, we only had eight whereas some of the big wineries have as much as 40 [overseas workers] so the opportunities to employ them all would have been hard.”

A petition, launched by Cait Guyette, who was from the United States but had a permanent job at a winery in Blenheim, had called for the Government to ease visa restrictions.

The petition closed on July 1 and was still to be presented in Parliament.

“There's not a lot of need in the winery for workers at the moment. What I’m hoping is that they will remove the conditions on the visas because they’re tied to the employer,” Guyette said.

“But if they made them more like a working holiday visa, that would allow people to work in other industries, in vineyards and other agriculture industries. Especially for South Americans that are still unable to get home.”

Immigration New Zealand border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg said a further six-month extension for some temporary work visa holders provided both migrants and employers with more certainty in the short term.

“In general, INZ’s advice to people who are here from overseas, who are not currently employed, and are experiencing financial difficulty during COVID-19 is to talk to their embassy or onsulate for assistance.”

Through Red Cross visitor care, people who are eligible, on temporary visas and experiencing hardship could apply for assistance to help with accommodation, utilities, food and winter warmth costs, as well as support for emergency medical needs.

More information could be found at https://www.redcross.org.nz/stories/new-zealand/visitor-care-manaaki-manuhiri/ and people could apply at https://foreignnationals.services.govt.nz.