May 10, 2018
No obligation to fill seasonal jobs
Employment Minister Willie Jackson says unemployed people can’t be forced to pick kiwifruit, and the industry needs to look at ways to make working in the short harvest season more attractive.
The Ministry of Social Development declared a seasonal labour shortage occurring in the Bay of Plenty, meaning employers can hire people on visitor’s visas to get in the bumper crop.
Mr Jackson says the Opposition seems to think the unemployed can be made to take the jobs, but that’s not the system we have.
"Our people, whether they be Maori, Pakeha, whatever, locals, they have obligations.hey have whanau obligations, obligations in terms of the community. They may be 50, 50, 70km away from these places. You've got to take a lot of that into account. You can't wield the big baton, say there's a gap, fill it for five, six weeks and then there is no job afterwards," he says.
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