By Dylan Moran
A University of Auckland study looking into how New Zealand can protect foreign fishermen working in our waters has found their employers are breaking the law, and our Government is not stopping it.
The study claims the workers are often overworked and abused, and their employers are not protecting them.
“It is abhorrent that the New Zealand Government is unwilling to ensure that foreign workers have access to the minimum entitlements that New Zealand citizens so readily receive,” says one worker.
Dr Christina Stringer, Glenn Simmons, Daren Coulston and Professor Hugh Whittaker have conducted the study for the university’s business school, which has been released to 3 News and will be presented tonight.
It is estimated there are 2000 foreign crew members working on 27 foreign charter vessels (FCVs) in New Zealand waters. The group conducting the study interviewed 78 workers in New Zealand and 65 in Indonesia, including the surviving crew members of the Oyang 70, which sank in calm waters last year killing six.
They found a common theme of workers being underpaid, malnourished and abused by their employers, even though the boats are required to operate under New Zealand law, specifically;
- Being paid the minimum wage plus an extra $2 per hour.
- Deduction of wages to cover food cannot exceed 10% of the minimum wage.
- Visa fees and travel costs may be deducted, but are not allowed to bring the pay below the minimum wage.
- On a NZ-owned vessel, foreign workers will be reimbursed for working on public holidays and eligible for holiday pay.
- The right to work in a safe environment.
These requirements are used to protect New Zealand workers, so the use of FCVs does not undermine the industry here.
Abuse
But fishermen the academics interviewed revealed these requirements are not being met. Workers have detailed horrific stories of abuse, with one describing a galley boy on a Korean boat who was raped by four Chinese crew members.
Muslim workers have described how they were repeatedly referred to as ‘dogs’ and ‘monkeys’, and the wife of a fisherman who died in the sinking of the Oyang 70 was instructed to sleep with the director of a Korean agency in order to get insurance.
“My wife and [Eula] widow of deceased [Muhammad], take the death certificate to the agency. They said husband's insurance money has not come from the Korean agent and if you want to get insurance money, you must live/sleep with the director of the agency for a few days,” says one worker.
Payments
FCV workers are earning between $6,700 and $11,600 per year after deductions, but working 112 hours per week – averaging 16 hour shifts, though in some instances workers were made to work a 53 hour shift. Some workers also did not get a day off, despite working a two year contract.
The contrast is stark, with foreign crews working on NZ-owned vessels earning between $60,000 and $80,000 per year, working six hours, then resting for the same amount of time.
“It is abhorrent that the New Zealand Government is unwilling to ensure that foreign workers have access to the minimum entitlements that New Zealand citizens so readily receive,” says one person interviewed in the study.
“The complicity of Government agencies will result in the continuation of this shameful practice.”
Food
When the crew of the Oyang 70 were rescued they told the crew of the ship which saved them, the Amaltal Atlantis, they were only allowed to eat two fish per day.
"The crew were telling us they only get $300 a trip, a month's worth of work, and the food on board, all they eat is fish - no rice, no noodle, nothing else," Atlantis Captain Greg Lyall told 3 News when the Oyang 70 story originally broke.
The solution to the problem is unclear, but the academics say the Government needs to start taking responsibility to rectify the issue, something workers involved in the study claim current Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson and Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman are not doing.
“It is clear that Immigration New Zealand do not accept any of the crew’s evidence that they worked at least 16 hours a day,” says one source, while another adds, “the fact that the Department [of Labour] is supporting the practice of withholding minimum entitlement payments from crews until their departure from New Zealand is concerning .”
The report will be presented at Auckland University tonight.
3 News