Games offer kiwis golden job chances

By STAFF REPORTERS

Thousands of New Zealanders are heading across the Tasman to cash in on the Olympic boom.

Recruitment companies and official Olympic bodies are hunting staff for the September Games for everything from cleaning toilets to chauffeuring athletes.

Next in line could be 100 unemployed from Northland for hospitality jobs in Sydney.

Work and Income New Zealand has confirmed it has been approached by a recruitment agent, which the Herald understands is offering up to six weeks' employment, including bar, cleaning and waiting work.

The department says negotiations are in progress, but there has been a huge number of inquiries in the job-depressed Far North on the strength of talk of pay rates between $A15 and $A20 ($18 to $24) an hour.

In Australia, recruitment company Adecco has more than 4000 permanent and part-time Olympic positions listed on its website and companies such as bus 2000 are seeking more than 5000 bus and administration staff to cope with the influx of visitors from August to October.

The New Zealand hospitality trade is bracing itself as chefs and other restaurant workers jump the Tasman to take advantage of short-term vacancies being offered during the Games.

Greg Stanaway, from Auckland hospitality recruitment agency Spectrum International, said he thought around 350 young workers had already gone - and more would follow.

Most were going for the excitement, not big money because when living expenses had been taken into account, pay rates would be about the same, he said.

Australian agencies and employers had been advertising on the internet and some had come to New Zealand to interview staff.

Sydney was experiencing a shortage of junior to mid-grade chefs - in line with a world shortage - and restaurants here could be left short.

Most of those going to Sydney would be there only for a few months and in some cases employers here had agreed to take them back.

Mr Stanaway said he expected Sydney would experience a similar downturn in business after the Games, as happened in Auckland following the America's Cup.

"There are too many rooms and too many food and beverage outlets."

But the Restaurant Association's Neville Waldren said he believed restaurants here would be able to cope as demand was quieter over winter.

The New Zealand building industry is still suffering a shortage of skilled labour as construction workers accept numerous contracts on offer ahead of the Olympics.

In Northland, where the unemployment rate for the first quarter was running at 9 per cent, Winz says it is treating the Olympic recruitment offer seriously.

Northland regional Winz commissioner Sharon Brownie said it had training providers "on standby" to ensure that anyone getting a job offer was "up to the required standards."

The Herald has been told Winz may also pay each job seeker on their books a work start grant if referral to an interview results in acceptance for a job in Sydney. The grant could be used to help pay the worker's transtasman airfare.

Carl Hutchinson, a barman at the New Brighton Tavern in Manly, a popular Kiwi drinking spot, said a "helluva lot" of New Zealanders were filing into Sydney to try their luck as the Olympics approached.

The 24-year-old left Christchurch last November to "beat the rush."

"There's a lot of work going in the hospitality industry. People can come here, work and have fun while the Games are on - that's going to be one big party.

"But if they're thinking about making some money, forget about it. The cost of living is too high and you spend what you can to live."

The Olympics – a Herald series

Official Sydney 2000 website