Lithuanian workers issue has opened container of worms

The Mar­itime Union says the sit­u­a­tion of Lithuan­ian work­ers in Lyt­tel­ton has opened a “con­tain­er of worms” for immi­gra­tion and safe­ty issues.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says there are two major issues at stake – first­ly the sta­tus of import­ed work­ers doing jobs on the water­front, but liv­ing aboard ships, and a sec­ond issue of safe­ty and work­ing con­di­tions.

He says it appears that employ­ers are now try­ing to get around immi­gra­tion reg­u­la­tions by accom­mo­dat­ing work­ers on board over­seas ships, then get­ting them down the gang­plank to work with­in New Zealand each day.

Mr Han­son says the work­ers were moved from their cur­rent accom­mo­da­tion in con­vert­ed con­tain­ers on the water­front because the Lyt­tel­ton Port Com­pa­ny did not believe they were sit­u­at­ed safe­ly.

“They moved the con­vert­ed con­tain­ers onboard the ship to get around the prob­lem.”

Mr Han­son says the Mar­itime Safe­ty Author­i­ty have said the sit­u­a­tion is not accept­able and the work­ers must have onboard accom­mo­da­tion in line with inter­na­tion­al reg­u­la­tions, or pro­vid­ed with suit­able hotel accom­mo­da­tion.

He says the Mar­itime Union is con­cerned about how employ­ers are seek­ing to import casu­al, short term labour from over­seas under the guise of labour short­ages, and then using this to dri­ve down work­ing con­di­tions and wages.