Editorial: Staffing crisis has nuances - but need for action is real

A hospitality worker shortage in places including Queenstown has inspired warnings about damage to the multi-billion dollar tourism sector. Photo / Getty Images

EDITORIAL

It was a dig at the industry, or at least a suggestion, woven into a statement about the resident visa backlog.

The incensed reaction from Hospitality NZ to new Immigration Minister Michael Wood's comments seemed to emphasise how high tensions are right now.

The minister recognised some industries had trouble attracting staff. But he said the cause was the record low unemployment rate, rather than what some firms have called a critical and avoidable shortage of foreign workers.

Wood suggested employers paying low wages and offering insecure working conditions should consider how to make their workplaces more attractive.

Hospitality NZ called Wood's remark arrogant, and suggested he was out of touch after barely a fortnight in his role. The industry group reminded people how hard it was for many operators to stay in business during the pandemic years.

But as living costs rise, supply chain issues intensify and inflation surges, workers cannot be expected to have endless gratitude for low-wage jobs.

Those low wages, and a reliance on cheap foreign labour, have plagued our hospitality sector for many years, AUT academic Dr David Williamson said.

A worker on the $21.20 minimum wage would, after tax, take home $37,359 per year - assuming they worked 40 hours a week in a permanent role.

The reality for many hospitality and tourism workers is less stable, and as the Unite union pointed out, what some bosses call flexibility others see as insecurity.

In the pandemic, people doing what had been necessary but undesirable jobs found themselves expendable.

They were dispensed with when lockdowns and border closures made business for many restaurants and hotels untenable, or impossible.

Now, some of those deemed surplus one or two years ago, or during the more recent Delta lockdown, are being asked to return.

But after more than two years fenced in, many young New Zealanders will be eager to leave the country. The prospect of a job at home receiving the minimum wage, or even the slightly higher living wage, is little incentive compared to the excitement and opportunity in Australia and further afield.

The labour crisis, while an international concern, has spilled into New Zealand's retail, health, and food processing too. In each industry, the causes of worker shortages vary, as do possible solutions.

Sealord has had trouble finding staff, but so has a Mt Eden barbershop forced to close after 20 years, and so has Air New Zealand.

An influx of foreigners will not immediately save all afflicted sectors or even be directly relevant to the likes of Air NZ.

But clearing the tens of thousands of queued residence visa applications must be more of a priority for the Government.

The pressures on understaffed workplaces will only intensify as Omicron continues its march, long Covid hits, the winter flu season bites, and more people leave the country.

Any honeymoon Wood had in the role is surely over after he inherited the portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle last month. And any excuse for complacency on the issue has now passed too.