Sour grapes in New Zealand fruit-picking scheme
Thursday, August 28th, 2008Michael McKenna; 28/8/08
As Australia plans to import Pacific island fruit pickers, it has been dealt a cautionary tale that workers in a similar scheme in New Zealand were allegedly mistreated, given little work and underpaid. Dozens of workers from the tiny island nation of Kiribati were housed in overcrowded conditions and after spending most of their lives in a hot climate, struggled to cope with the cold in some parts of New Zealand. They also encountered problems such as how to use unfamiliar appliances such as toasters. The workers were then left stranded by employers, who failed to provide promised jobs offered under the New Zealand seasonal visa scheme that the Rudd Government has used as a model for a pilot guest worker program in Australia.
