They were caught during a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) labour inspectorate audit of 44 farms, of which 31 were found breaching minimum employment rights.
In one case a farmer was ordered to pay $6000 arrears to an employee for breaching the Minimum Wage Act. Other cases remain, with the possibility of more serious enforcement action threatened.
MBIE said last November it would visit dairy farms nationwide between December 2013 and April 2014 to check their compliance with minimum employment rights. The visits were part of a plan to look at employers’ seasonal averaging of salaries and failure to keep accurate time and wage records.
Despite MBIE’s timely warning, about 75% of farms visited were found wanting.
This sort of news is mud in the eye of dairy farmers, in fact all farmers. Dairy farmers are already fighting the perception they are ‘milking it’, because of record high milk prices. And they face constant accusations of damaging the environment for personal financial gain.
Stinginess toward employees, whom they treat as glorified slaves, will not enhance the industry’s reputation. It is hard enough now to attract youngsters to work on dairy farms; this report will make it harder.
Moreover, claims by Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Willy Leferink that, “farmers are poor keepers of paperwork,” are not helpful, presenting as a defence of the indefensible. Better he had stuck to the words spoken by his colleague Katie Milne, Feds’ employment spokeswoman: “The law is the law and there’s no excuse for deficient time recording or having no employment agreement.”
MBIE has rightly warned dairy farmers to lift their game by complying with minimum employment rights.
It is way past time dairy farmers stopped paying lip service to the truism about a business being only as good as the people who work in it. If the sector wants to attract excellent people it must treat them as such.
