Operation Indigo involves teams from the Labour Inspectorate and Immigration New Zealand Compliance and Investigations taking an integrated and intelligence-led approach to address non-compliance and prevent harm. Site visits focused on labour hire practices, sub-contracting arrangements and compliance with immigration requirements.
Immigration Compliance National Manager and Horticulture Sector Lead Fadia Mudafar says collaboration and joint visits between Immigration Compliance and Investigations and the Labour Inspectorate as part of Operation Indigo demonstrate how our regulatory agencies are working together on the ground.
“The aim of Operation Indigo is to identify, disrupt, and address offending with employment and immigration legislation, with a specific focus on employers identified as high-risk in the kiwifruit sector.”
“The horticulture sector is a priority focus for this work given its scale and risks of employment and immigration non-compliance. We are taking an increasingly joined up approach as we strengthen our collective response to address serious economic harm, including harms arising within the horticulture sector.”
Over 4 days last week MBIE regulatory teams made unannounced site visits to check recordkeeping, minimum employment entitlements, lawful payroll deductions and compliance with immigration requirements, including work rights.
“Our aim is to identify practices in the kiwifruit industry that involve cynical, material, or systemic breaches which may result in harm to workers,” says Ms Mudafar.
“These joint operations allow agencies to identify and address breaches across our respective areas in a coordinated way, creating a stronger deterrent and greater overall impact. While we will be supportive of employers who are making genuine efforts to comply, we will not hesitate to take action where there is clear and material non compliance.
“This includes referring indications of potential criminal activity to our relevant partner agencies, in line with our integrated approach.”
Ms Mudafar says it was disappointing that the regulatory teams identified some workers employed in orchards despite their visas being granted for other roles.
“Follow-up investigative work is now underway, including requesting and auditing employment records to ensure the contractors are complying with employment standards and immigration obligations.”
Simon Humphries, Head of the Labour Inspectorate says: “This is an important sector for New Zealand’s economy and we want to ensure those employers and contractors who are doing the right thing are not disadvantaged through others’ non-compliance. As a high-risk sector we want to protect vulnerable seasonal and migrant workers. To do so we need to disrupt the activities of employers who do not comply with New Zealand’s laws, including exploiting their workers.”
He says work and engagement with the sector is also an integral part of this collaborative approach.
“MBIE regulators work closely with Zespri on an ongoing basis to ensure their supply chain is free of non-compliant contractors and growers, and that there is fairness for all those operating in the kiwifruit sector. It is encouraging that Zespri fully supports the work we do to protect employers who do right by their workers,” Mr Humphries says.
Further information on the regulatory teams’ findings will be available once the information gathered has been fully assessed.