Here's why no-one wants to plant trees for $400 a day

Sunday, 20 January 2019

The Ministry for Primary Industries has had to remove a dozen species from the list of trees it was pushing people to plant as part of its Billion Tree Programme after some were revealed to be pests.

New Zealanders aren't taking short-term jobs because it's not worth their time to do so, workers' advocate say.

It was reported last week that there is a shortage of people to plant the trees required by the Government's one billion trees by 2028 campaign.

Pay rates in the North Island are up to 60c a tree, or up to $400 a day if workers plant a tree a minute over 10 hours.

There have also been reports of shortages of staff for meatworks, construction and agricultural roles.

* Alliance applies for 40 overseas meat workers for Mataura plant

* Labour-hire workers do the same job, earn less

* Where's the Workers Advisory Council?**

Forest nurseries have doubled plantings to 100 million tree seedlings in response to Government incentives, but finding staff is the biggest hurdle to getting them in the ground.

At the end of last year the Government lifted by 1750 the number of overseas workers allowed in for seasonal work under the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme.

But First Union general secretary Dennis Maga said it was disingenuous to claim there were not enough willing workers.

'If you look at the industries that are claiming a worker shortage they're all low paid, some have even broken the law through the exploitation and human trafficking of migrant workers,' he said.

'There's a reason no-one wants to work in these jobs, their time isn't worth the money and they often cannot afford to live on what some of these unethical businesses choose to offer. And it is a choice, right, what's really disheartening is that it's not like the money isn't there. Horticulture for example is one of our highest export earners.'

He said many of the industries struggling to find workers had previously been staffed by international students but the number of students coming to New Zealand had dropped significantly.

In the 2017/18 financial year, there were 104,781 approved student visa applications. For 2018/2019, it was 44,970.

Chloe King said people needed to be paid more to take insecure, short-term roles.

'We end up with a split labour market. Kiwis won't do the dirty, dangerous low-paying jobs.'

He said employers finding it hard to hire should look at their strategy. 'If they want to sustain their business in their industry they need to attract the young ones.'

The union's transport, logistics and manufacturing organiser, Denise Roche, said seasonal jobs in sectors such as horticulture did not appeal to some people.

'In other industries with insecure work, employees are paid more in recognition of this. It's also hard, labour-intensive work so the pay needs to match this… give workers a bigger share of the pie and make it worth their time away from family and friends. Then there won't be a shortage.'

Worker advocate Chloe King said work such as the tree-planting roles often required people to shift to a rural location, uprooting their lives in the process.

'A seasonal job can be really great if it's something you like doing and it fits your lifestyle. But if you're just desperate for work and bouncing between welfare and precarious, low-wage jobs and there's no other option, taking that work is not the greatest.'

She said the jobs would also often be on a contracting basis, so there were none of the protections usually given to employees, such as sick leave or holiday pay.

'To make the $400 a day you'd have to plant 83 trees an hour over an eight-our work day, without taking a break, to make this kind of cash. I've spoken with seasoned tree-planters who say this would be nearly impossible as the work is back-breaking, especially in rugged terrain and varying temperatures and weather conditions.

'They should pay a base living wage and then 30c or 60c per tree on top, I don't think that's asking too much.'

Jessica Berentson-Shaw, founder of thinktank The Workshop, said many people decided it did not make sense to come off the benefit for short-term work.

'People weigh up the entire wellbeing of them and their families. It may not leave them better off economically over the longer term once all the costs of moving, travel to work, accommodation and stand downs [from the benefit if they have to reapply afterwards] have been accounted for.

'On top of that there is the mental wellbeing of a person and their family to consider. People are not in the main autonomous units. They need social and other support as do their families. Expectations to take transient short-term work often overlook the importance of the overall wellbeing of a person and their family and the costs to them and society of it. As a country we need to find good work that works for people if we want to improve our productivity and collective wellbeing over the long term.'

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