Labour shortage in building industry

Press, 10 May 1985, Page 25

Labour shortage in building industry

PA Wellington The building industry is suffering a severe shortage of skilled labour because it cannot compete with higher wages being paid on energy projects and in Australia. The secretary of the Carpenters’ Union Wellington district, Mr Bert Parker, said the industry lost 487 carpenters to Australia last year. Wellington and Auckland would have suffered the bulk of those losses. A carpenter in the first year gets $6.48 an hour in New Zealand. He gets $8.96 an hour in Australia, he said. Mr Parker said that on top of the 487 loss, the

branch also had 120 leave the industry for higher paying other jobs, usually less skilled, and because of old age. He said skilled tradespeople were not being paid what they were worth. Wellington was mainly being hit by the labour shortage in commercial building, said the president of the Wellington Master Builders’ Association, Mr Neale Howcroft. This could mean delays, and could slow some contacts down. Mr Howcroft agreed that New Zealand was losing apprentices to Australia and to large projects such as Motunui, Glenbrook, and Marsden Point.