Last week, teams from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) carried out visits across several Bay of Plenty towns as part of a focused operation to check that kiwifruit orchards are complying with the rules.
The move, called Operation Indigo, brings together teams from the Labour Inspectorate and Immigration New Zealand Compliance and Investigations, using an integrated, intelligence-led approach to identify non-compliance and prevent harm.
Site visits concentrated on labour hire practices, subcontracting arrangements, and adherence to immigration requirements.
“The aim of Operation Indigo is to identify, disrupt, and address offending with employment and immigration legislation, with a specific focus on employers identified as high-risk in the kiwifruit sector,” Immigration Compliance National Manager and Horticulture Sector Lead Fadia Mudafar said.
“The horticulture sector is a priority focus for this work given its scale and risks of employment and immigration non-compliance. We are taking an increasingly joinedup approach as we strengthen our collective response to address serious economic harm, including harms arising within the horticulture sector.”
“Our aim is to identify practices in the kiwifruit industry that involve cynical, material, or systemic breaches which may result in harm to workers,” Mudafar explained.
“These joint operations allow agencies to identify and address breaches across our respective areas in a coordinated way, creating a stronger deterrent and greater overall impact. While we will be supportive of employers who are making genuine efforts to comply, we will not hesitate to take action where there is clear and material noncompliance.”
“This includes referring indications of potential criminal activity to our relevant partner agencies, in line with our integrated approach.”
Mudafar said it was disappointing that regulatory teams found some workers in orchards who were employed in roles different from those specified in their visas.
“Follow-up investigative work is now underway, including requesting and auditing employment records to ensure the contractors are complying with employment standards and immigration obligations.”
For Simon Humphries, Head of the Labour Inspectorate, the kiwifruit industry is an important part of New Zealand’s economy, and there is a desire to ensure that employers and contractors who comply with the rules are not put at a disadvantage by others failing to do so.
“As a high-risk sector we want to protect vulnerable seasonal and migrant workers. To do so we need to disrupt the activities of employers who do not comply with New Zealand’s laws, including exploiting their workers.”