RSE workers from Samoa working in Bostock orchard, Hastings. Photo: RNZ / Anusha Bradley
Businesses are welcoming government moves to allow two thousand overseas seasonal workers back into the country to work in the primary sector. The workers will arrive early next year, spending two weeks in managed isolation at the expense of the employers, who will also be required to pay them the living wage of $22.10
The government has also announced a range of financial incentives to entice unemployed New Zealanders into seasonal work, but employers are not required to pay the living wage for anyone other than the skilled labourers coming from the Pacific. Is this discrepancy in pay going to be justifiable?
Does it expose low wages as a fundamental problem in the sector's labour market woes?
Kathryn talks with Alan Pollard, chief executive of NZ Apples and Pears, and Kirk Hope, Chief Executive of Business New Zealand.
