WWOOFing scheme rejects a host a day seeking travellers as cheap labour

Thursday, 11 January 2018

WWOOF New Zealand has distanced itself from this dilapidated Christchurch farm where thousands of young travellers were exploited for their labour.

The Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) scheme says it constantly turns away prospective hosts seeking freebie labour.

'We'd turn away one a day,' WWOOF New Zealand director Andrew Strange said.

Willing Workers on Organic Farms refused to place volunteers on a Tai Tapu property at the centre of a Labour Inspectorate investigation.

Out of more than 2000 hosts on its register, about 10 a year were removed for failing to meet the organisation's standards, either for 'inappropriate behaviour or not providing a learning experience', he said.

His comments follow Labour Inspectorate claims thousands of young travellers were exploited by Robinwood Farm on the outskirts of Christchurch where they worked for company director Julia Osselton's firewood and gardening businesses.

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Described as an organic WWOOFing property on its Facebook page, Robinwood was recently ordered by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to pay two workers wages and holiday pay arrears.

The ERA was told the workers were fed food gathered from supermarket waste bins and slept in a small unheated storage room under the stairs.

Strange said Robinwood Farm was refused official WWOOF host registration in 2013 because the property was not 'organic'.

When he discovered Osselton's Karamea Holiday Homes business had registered with WWOOF under a different name, it too was removed.

Strange said he was taking steps to get the Robinwood Facebook page reference to WWOOFing deleted.

Osselton refused to comment when Stuff visited the run down property in Old Tai Tapu Rd on Thursday.

She worked as a health and safety manager for a Christchurch company specialising in asbestos removal and meth decontamination, but a staff member there said she left three months ago.

New Zealand hosts about 11,000 WWOOFers annually and Strange said they received few complaints from workers.

'We now reject more [host] applications than we accept because a lot of people are coming to us saying, 'we need help doing this work', and we say 'that's not what this is about, it's about learning'.

'We were finding that people were pushing the envelope too far.

'We've been through the list to identify anyone who's using them in some kind of accommodation business and such like.'

Stuff pointed out an eco lodge on the WWOOF website sought workers for gardening, landscaping, room cleaning, to work in the kitchen, as waiters, in reception and to do massages in the spa.

Strange said the lodge had been with WWOOF for many years, but it might be time to reassess that, and he had sought legal advice to clarify the Labour Inspectorate's definition of volunteer labour.

According to a WWOOF newsletter, if the host was alongside the WWOOFer teaching them and varying their activities, that was unlikely to be considered employment.

But if the WWOOFer was shown how to do a task and was left to do it every morning for a week, 'that is beginning to look like an employment situation'.

Inspectorate national manager Stu Lumsden said the test was whether someone was rewarded for their labour.

'[If] a business is making an economic gain from the work, the work is integral to the business, and workers' hours are controlled, those are factors we're looking at to differentiate between a volunteer and an employee.

'My understanding of the proper volunteer scheme is that the people [taking part] can flit in and out as they like … that the volunteer would learn to farm organically, or gain knowledge from it.'

Those who breach labour laws are not off the hook once young travellers leave the country.

Lumsden said the ERA had accepted the written statement of a Spanish man who worked for Osselton's Karamea Holiday Homes, and he was awarded more than $20,000 in wages and holiday pay.

Witnesses could give evidence via Skype.