Labour shortages hitting New Zealand
Farmers are turning to dairy drivers for help, while some employees are quitting to seek higher pay or free yoga from work
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, January 31, by Justin Giovannetti. Presented in partnership with Z Energy. Happy Auckland anniversary day.
In today’s edition: Pregnant NZ journalist blocked by MIQ; PM isolating after flight with omicron case; schools prepare for return of students; but first, the many signs of turbulence in the country’s labour market.
There’s a demand for workers, whether you’re a farmer or work at Farmers (Tina Tiller)
A torrent of change is underway in the country’s labour market. Jobs are going unfilled and overseas sources of help can’t be tapped. That has farmers warning of rotting crops, while all types of businesses face a tough situation. Omicron will only make it worse. Meanwhile, workers are starting to demand more from bosses.
Questions abound as New Zealand’s unemployment rate could hit a record low this week. Tom Pullar-Strecker asks in Stuff if it’s really possible that 97% of eligible New Zealanders are employed at the moment. Part of the problem might rest with how StatsNZ collects data and defines employment, or the lack of it. Being counted as a worker gets complicated. But however you look at things, a lot of local employers need workers. Wellington buses ply the city’s streets with their front marquee calling for drivers, while “Help Wanted” ads are ubiquitous across the country.
Some workers are seizing the moment to quit and ask for more money and perks. The NZ Herald (paywalled) looks at the Bay of Plenty where there’s a tussle between employees looking for more and bosses resisting what they deem unrealistic salary demands. Friday’s edition of The Bulletin focused on how the highest inflation rate in a generation is pushing up wages. It’s also more than money, with some workers asking for more annual leave, trips, as well as paid yoga and pilates memberships. Local recruiters have reported that experienced applicants have been turned down over their salary demands, but things are shifting fast in the region. Even the horticultural industry is now paying a living wage or above.
Facing a worker crunch, farmers are again warning that crops could be left to rot before harvest this year. A South Canterbury farm family told One News that they haven’t been able to bring over nine skilled harvest workers from overseas despite a government programme announced in December. Spots at the border for 200 workers have yet to materialise, with the government blaming omicron for the delay. The Canterbury farm’s vast fields are turned into more than 15 million loaves of bread annually and the farmers warn that without those workers, bread prices will go up this year. Similar warnings were made by other farmers last year, but since then, the small number of backpackers and excess workers who helped fill gaps have disappeared.
Some farms have turned to the dairy industry for help. There’s a small army of milk tanker drivers across New Zealand who could be asked to pilot combines and tractors over the coming weeks, Farmers Weekly reports. Organisations representing farmers and dairy are trying to see if the “unorthodox proposal” is feasible. It’s a sign of how desperate things are getting that it’s even being considered. The peaks of the milking and harvest seasons aren’t meant to coincide, so that could help. However, the biggest problem is that the trucking industry is currently short-staffed and fears of omicron infections could mean few drivers are free to trade in their trucks for tractors even for a few days.
Omicron could make labour shortages far worse. As the government tries to define who will be a critical worker in the coming weeks, an important distinction that gives them access to rapid tests and shorter isolation periods, Dileepa Fonseka writes in Stuff that it might be impossible to draw the distinction. Sure we’ll need supermarket workers, but without cleaning staff and security guards, the country’s businesses will shut down as well. Everyone eventually becomes critical. It’s likely to become a heated topic as infections spread. Over one million Australians might be in isolation at the moment and that country’s prime minister has suggested children be drafted to fill dangerous industrial jobs.
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‘When the Taliban offers you safe haven, you know your situation is messed up.’ Charlotte Bellis, a New Zealander currently working as a journalist in Afghanistan, wrote in the NZ Herald about her struggle to get a spot in MIQ. Reporting for Al Jazeera, she was the reporter who publicly asked the Taliban about their treatment of women last year after they took power. She now finds herself pregnant and unmarried in Afghanistan, with no work visa to go anywhere else. In a twist of irony, the Taliban have offered her safe haven.
She’s only the latest and one of the most high-profile people to run into MIQ officials unwilling to provide emergency allocations. I was struck by the Covid-19 minister saying that her case “warranted explanation”. The Bulletin has run numerous similar stories, including from pregnant New Zealanders, that have gone unanswered by government. Over the past two years there have been 229 emergency applications for MIQ based on pregnancy, 23 have been approved. Stuff reports that Bellis has been offered asylum by another country. She’s still planning to bring the government to court to get a spot to give birth in her own country.
Prime minister isolates, case numbers start picking up speed. The prime minister is considered a close-contact of an omicron case after a flight to Auckland last weekend and needs to self-isolate until Tuesday. Her office has said she has no symptoms and went for a test yesterday. As Thomas Coughlan writes in the NZ Herald (paywalled), Jacinda Ardern likely went into isolation on the day she was initially supposed to get married. The wedding was postponed because of omicron. The governor general was on the same flight and is also isolating.
Two of the country’s top leaders going into isolation is a sign of how fast-moving this virus is. After weeks of low case numbers since mid-December as delta fizzled, Friday saw the first omicron surge as cases jumped over 100. RNZ reports that the list of flights and locations of interest increased rapidly over the weekend as contact tracers tried to map the fast growing outbreak.
The Spinoff’s Covid data tracker has the latest figures.
A new plan for Auckland transit that looks forward 50 years. The government has settled on building a light rail line that would be largely underground through the city, along with a new crossing of Waitematā harbour. According to Stuff, ministers want construction on the $14.6 billion plan to start in 2023 and last into the next decade. Parallels were drawn with a strikingly similar plan unveiled in the 1970s that didn’t survive a change of government in Wellington. Five decades later, Auckland still doesn’t have a proper transit system. National has said two new motorways should be built with the money instead.
The battle for the future of the Titahi Bay RSA. The local clubhouse in the Wellington suburb is falling apart and everyone agrees something needs to be done. But as Stuff reports in a long read, the debate over what that should be has split the community and has been pretty nasty. Accountants are coming in to probe the books amid allegations of improper behaviour. It’s gotten so bad that old club members aren’t showing up to drink beer in the poisoned atmosphere.
Schools prepare for students to return this week amid omicron. The Waikato Times reports principals across the country are planning how to keep masks on children as young as eight, along with a series of new Covid rules. Many schools will now also ban parents from entering their grounds because administrators are restricted about asking for vaccine status. Looming in the future are possible school closures, not directly from omicron, but from being unable to staff schools due to a surge in infected staff and teachers. School leaders say there’s been little guidance from government yet about what they are meant to do to prepare.
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Phoenix women’s coach says frustrations growing midway through season. It’s not been an easy inaugural season for Wellington, through nine games they’ve only scored three goals and managed a tie. But the women's coach, Gemma Lewis, told One News the real issues are with the league itself. As the only outfit to have so far dodged Covid-19 in Australia, the Wellington squad has seen its schedule thrown around with little notice as other teams deal with outbreaks.