Hundreds of vital migrant dairy workers will now be able to continue working in NZ thanks to lobbying by Federated Farmers. "Unbelievably, Immigration NZ was moving to remove skilled dairy workers from the Immediate Skills Shortage List (ISSL)," says Frank Brenmuhl, Federated Farmers Employment spokesperson. "It might come as a surprise, given negative press about dairy, but we still have a major skill shortage. Right now, we need more than 4000 new workers annually to cover growth, retirements and people just leaving the sector. "Despite it paying extremely well, we don't have young NZers entering the dairy sector. If the Assistant Herd Manager and Assistant Farm Manager categories were cancelled, it would have compromised exports."The industry in NZ currently employs about 1,300 migrant workers from countries as diverse as the Philippines, Chile and South Africa."Some of these workers have resided in NZ for a number of years and have valuable dairying experience. Sending them home would have been a complete waste of time, effort and money. "As we cannot recruit enough talent locally, we need skilled migrant workers. "When it comes to the Assistant Herd Managers category, it's also a case of one step forward, two steps back. The fact is overseas-based Immigration NZ staff don't understand dairy farming."This has led to inconsistencies in interpreting its own criteria. We now have the farcical situation whereby Immigration NZ sets the ISSL but then contradicts it by failing to consistently interpret it.
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