Mainfreight founder and chair Bruce Plested is firing back at government bureaucracy after the company was stood down by MBIE from hiring migrant labour for six months due to breaching the employment relations act 2000.
“Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse revealed yesterday that 53 employers had been stood down from recruiting migrant workers. Mainfreight is also on that list,” says Mainfreight chair Bruce Plested in a statement to the NZX.
He says Mainfreight’s name appears resulting from a a compliance audit by MBIE last year which identified that three of the company’s employees did not have written employment agreements on file. The company has since taken steps to manage this process better.
“The three Mainfreight team members who did not have signed employment contracts all still work for Mainfreight, in different parts of the business in Dunedin and Auckland,” says Plested.
“All three of them are, and always have been, New Zealand citizens without any visa complexity or elements to their employment. They hold meaningful roles and are solid contributors in their branches,” he says.
Plested says Mainfreight draws its employees from a wide pool, and provided that candidates have the necessary skills and attributes, the company is happy to employ people with valid work visas.
He says the impact of the six-month temporary stand-down period imposed by MBIE has been the removal of Mainfreight’s ability to support or sponsor an individual’s application for an extension of their work visa or residency application.
“In the main, this has meant that Mainfreight has had to suspend their exchange programme of bringing overseas team members to New Zealand for developmental purposes. A strange outcome given the nature of the transgression,” says Plested.
“Mainfreight has paid a high price in bad publicity for what is basically an administrative error. The increasing reach of bureaucracy continues to amaze,” he says.
