This section focuses on how RSE employers achieve a compliant work force using the regulatory framework of the RSE. The employer-employee relationship is framed in site-specific employment contracts. A senior union official (Preston, 11-6 -12) expressed regret that the NZ Council of Trade Unions did not insist on one nation-wide work agreement at the inception of the RSE. All of the employers interviewed used individual employment agreements which are individually signed by each worker before they enter New Zealand.
I’ve got 900 contracts in my office...identical, all of them.
DR: How do you react if someone says I’d like mine to be a bit different?
Never arisen. Do they read them? I doubt it. To be honest I don’t think they’ve read them. Part of my annual visit to the islands is I go through with government for any changes. (Oliver, 24-3-12)
Only one other employer reported any discussion of the terms of the employment contract: There is only one nationality that has sat down and discussed the content and attempted to negotiate what is in the contract and that is Tongans so they are the ones that have said that this is too dear and this is too cheap or whatever. Normally not too much variation from the year before and they’ll sign.
DR: What was the outcome? Did you bend?
No we didn’t, but at least we discussed what was in there and they brought up some interesting points. (Royden, 12-4-12)
The contracts may be worded broadly, and often state that the worker is on call seven days a week:
I kept the employment agreement very broad so I can move workers around different growers if need be. The only difference is the pack house is worded differently because of the shift hours.
DR: Would one of those worker agreements typically say Sunday off? Available to work every day if required.
DR: Have you found people at recruitment time asking you questions about it or do they just line up and sign?
If the grower wants the work done they work Sundays. Individual contracts are the same for every worker ... Contract states that if there is work they must be available for it. (Lilly, 13-4-12)
The RSE contracts are likely to be similar to contracts offered to local employees, as the following suggests, but there may be additional clauses which impact on their lives in New Zealand:
They have to sign a contract before they come and if they don’t sign they don’t work for us and they can work elsewhere but they sign that in Tonga before they come out. Basically everything is down to New Zealand legislation and then the house rules like no alcohol and that sort of thing. It’s a normal employment contract with a set of house rules attached97 (Joel, 21-6-12).
Their contract is no different from the guy that walks off the road ... it’s a general contract we’ve had for a long time and as laws have changed we’ve adapted some of the wording to suit; and some of the appendices are part of employment law which we can’t regulate ... But they have to be signed as individual contracts before they get the visas. (Drew, 22-6-12)
Weather conditions emerged as the primary factor in determining hours worked in the orchard. The inclusion of a clause requiring workers to be available for work every day reinforces this. Several employers pointed out that the usual complaint is not about too much work but about work stoppages, usually weather related:
Over the harvest they could do a 50 hour week but then again last week it was pissing down with rain. During the harvest I reckon average is 45-50 hours like the week just gone it pissed down on Tuesday. There is no such thing as a day off; in the contract everyone agrees they will work every day of the week.
DR: They must need a rest at some stage how do you manage that?
The weather does, but the ones who dictate is the orchards are run by Kiwis who don’t want to work 12 days in a row but it’s trying to stop these guys working!
DR: I know, the complaint would always be about not having apples available [for picking].
They hate it, and again a feature is they are so keen to work, stopping them sometimes is the issue. (Oliver, 24-3-12)
This observation was corroborated by every grower spoken to and by several workers spoken to in lodgings (various field notes):
97The house rules mentioned by John include a detailed list of proscribed behaviours in the accommodation.
The Kiwis would rather work for wages and get $300 a week but these guys are here to work and they won’t stop and I’ve had to pull them out after dark. Bin after bin. Bucket after bucket. (Brendon, 22-6-12)
However a labour contractor made the point that contractors are able to keep the work going because of the variety of crops which they contract to pick and acknowledged that the workers do sometimes complain of being overworked:
I think it’s the difference between us being contractors and not growers. I think the squash harvest has gone to 16 days at the longest.
DR: Is that the longest; sixteen days on the trot? What is the plan for the day? Seven [a.m.] to five [p.m.] (Royden, 12-4-12)
Table 6.1 shows employers’ estimates of hours worked overall, based on two survey questions, one of which looked at average hours worked per week, and the other which asked about the full range of hours worked.
Table 6-1: Hours of Work
Source: Author survey
Some acceptability bias (Robson, 2011, p. 588) seems likely, given that several instances were subsequently uncovered of workers working over 60 hours per week. The question referred to the previous season, and one employer interviewed, a contractor whose workers regularly work in excess of 60 hours per week, pointed out that the previous season was not quite so busy.
In contrast to the very variable hours in the orchard, pack house hours are long and routine. In those pack houses visited, hours worked were in the 50-55 hours per week range in the pip fruit industry, but longer in the Bay of Plenty kiwifruit environment. There is a culture of not working on Sundays in most enterprises. Average hours claimed Range of hours claimed 30-35 hours 5% 30-50 hours 64% 35-40 hours 16% 20-60 hours 26% 40-45 hours 47% 0-80 hours 5% 45-50 hours 32% unstated 5%
DR: So Sunday night is the spell [rest]?
Generally it is the Sunday night but it depends on the flow of the fruit so they might work five days and then two days off but it might be ten days in a row and then have a break so the main season runs 10-12 weeks...
DR: Personally I would have thought over 60 [hours per week] is getting excessive. Yes 60 is up there. Sometimes our staff might get up to 70 or 80 but then you might be told you are not coming in for two days. (Euan, 19-11-12)
Some contracts do prescribe maximum hours. The contract signed with RSE workers in a large kiwifruit enterprise specifies a maximum working week of 70 hours. These are monitored. Penelope (interviewed 20-11-12) says most would not work much more than 60 hours per week and workers are not encouraged to work more than 60. However there is pressure from Malaysian workers in particular to treat 60 as a minimum.
Penelope further explained that the pack houses work on straight 12 hour night and day shifts between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. (10.5 hours paid work per shift). The RSE employees mainly work the night shifts. The nightshift pay incentive is $1/hour so most night workers were paid at $14.50 in 2012.
The interviews demonstrated longer hours of work than were revealed by the survey, perhaps indicating some level of social acceptability bias (Robson, 1993, 2011) by employers when answering survey questions. However conversations with pack house workers in New Zealand, particularly women, demonstrated a high degree of acceptance of the long hours (field notes, various).
A measure of employer power is the control of the rest or Sabbath day, which falls on Saturday for Seventh Day Adventists (SDAs), who constitute a major religious denomination in Vanuatu. Although many employers have a requirement for the workers to be available at all times, a culture of Sunday rest is nonetheless prevalent. A human resource manager in a mid-sized pack house said “I mean probably two things; there are some [who] are church goers and also we all need a day off, so it works pretty good.” (Philip, 23-3-12)
The Sunday culture is a particular challenge for SDAs. Their rejection of alcohol and kava may have been considered a bonus by employers worried about the consumption of these substances, but several employers expressed frustration at the Saturday sabbath. Barry (interviewed 24-3-12) reported sending a Seventh Day Adventist home because he had signed up to work on Saturdays and
then refused to do so. Gregory (interviewed 10-4-12) stated that Seventh Day Adventists were not wanted unless they agreed to work Saturdays.
We tend to avoid them in the recruiting. We have one but she does have to work on Saturday and it doesn’t worry her. We tend to avoid them as they say at the time they will work on Saturdays but when they get here they refuse to work. One of our best pickers was SDA but he wouldn’t work on a Saturday so we didn’t re employ him and he was the best worker we had. (Poppy, 4-7-12)
Some employers expressed a degree of tolerance however:
We do have ten [SDA employees] and three of the ladies didn’t come to work on Saturday; I said that’s fine. Our contract does say you have to work when asked but ... it’s not an issue. (Kate, 11-4-12)
Usually it’s two over there and one over there and it doesn’t really matter. As it goes on and gets colder we might get some saying they are SDA this week; but we know they are not so we say “come on play the game.” (Les, 13-4-12)
If there is a growing level of intolerance towards SDAs on the grounds of their reluctance or refusal to work on Saturdays, it may be that there is an accompanying intolerance of any time off work on terms set down by the workers. The reader may consider the implications of this statement from a smaller employer whose Tongan workforce have a long standing arrangement of not working on the Sabbath, in their case Sunday:
They never work Sunday. It’s the religious day and they have never worked a Sunday in the five years they been here ... at times I’ve asked them to and they said no and in a way it’s something we want to talk to them about. If it rains Thursday and Friday you might want pickers out there on a fine Sunday to pick it, and they won’t. That is an issue to be honest. (Drew, 22-6-12)
Although this example shows that the on-call arrangements are not yet universal, it seems likely that which has been accepted in the past is beginning to clash with the needs of the harvest in a highly competitive apple exporting business, in which profitability requires labour to be instantly available.
In summary, the culture which has developed within the horticultural industry has invoked normalities which see expectations of pay and hours specific to each section of the industry. RSE workers fit within this framework and play a role in normalising aspects which might otherwise be contestable. For example, if NZ workers cannot be found to staff 12 hour nightshifts in the kiwifruit industry at minimum pay (plus one dollar), RSE workers can. The requirement to sign individual contracts before visas are issued ensures that no negotiations on conditions of work can take place
subsequently. There is at least the possibility that in cementing in these normalities, sections of the horticultural industry become embedded as migrant worksites. Managers do not retain much overall perspective on what might be normal for NZ workers generally, and given the willingness of migrant workers to work long hours, the horticultural worksites become embedded in a rural work culture, distinct from those urban gains which previously saw most employment agreements specifying overtime pay when work hours exceeded 40 per week.