Winz apologises for refusing to list job vacancy

Research shows a growth of labour-only contracting by employers unsure about the economic outlook. File photo / NZ Herald

Work and Income has apologised to an Auckland builder for refusing to list a six-week labour-only job on its vacancy list for the country's 155,000 unemployed.

The agency told Colin Lane, a Greenhithe-based self-employed builder, that it would not list labour-only or "contract jobs" on its vacancy list, which is available for jobseekers online and in Work and Income offices.

Mr Lane then advertised the job in a local newspaper and hired another former self-employed builder, Joe Wiringi, a 33-year-old father of four who was considering leaving for Perth because he could not find work here.

Work and Income employment service general manager Stephen Cunningham said the service made a mistake and should have listed the vacancy.

"Work and Income has called Mr Lane to explain this and acknowledged that if the staff member who spoke to them had asked more questions, they would have understood that the vacancy should have been listed," he said.

"It has highlighted a need for clearer guidelines around this, which we are now working on."

But Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said the agency had it right in the first place and should have refused to list what could be an unlawful job.

"This seems to me to be a direct ploy to avoid sick leave, ACC, tax and holiday pay. There is no benefit to the worker here of being employed as a contract labourer," she said.

"The law says that if you set up the employment relationship to avoid those obligations, it's illegal."

Last week's household labour force survey pointed to growing use of labour-only contracting by employers unsure about the economic outlook.

Two-thirds of the 39,000 new jobs created in the year to March were in self-employment.

Mr Lane said he took on Mr Wiringi as a self-employed contractor because he did not know if he would have enough work to keep him after they finished a six-week job re-roofing a house.

"At the end of the day guys like Joe had nothing," he said. "He's come along to me for six weeks and if another job comes along, and if we can get along, the job will carry on."

Mr Wiringi has not had house-building work for two years. He turned to building fences on a rate per metre but that work also dried up, leaving him and his children aged 15, 7, 6 and 5 dependent on his wife's part-time income.

Mr Lane pays him $20 an hour, out of which he will pay his own GST, income tax and ACC levies. He is still thinking of going to Perth, where friends are earning $50 an hour.

"I'm not even on half of what I used to be on," he said. "I really want to stay here ... but if things don't pick up I really have no choice, I basically have to go where the work is."

Mr Cunningham said Work and Income would list any vacancy that would lead to "sustainable jobs". Vacancies had to comply with employment laws, and must not be "unlikely to provide benefits for our clients, for example commission sale that does not include a retainer".

But Business NZ employment policy manager Paul Mackay said the agency was right to list labour-only jobs because they had always been widespread in the building industry. "If you had to pay ... wet days and fine, the cost of the house goes up."