Winepress - September 2024

Home away from home

More workers means more accommodation, so what’s involved in housing

PENNY WARDLE AND BEV DOOLE

MARLBOROUGH RELIES on about 3000 RSE workers over winter and 1500 over summer to do the work in the vineyards. They are out in all weathers, a long way from families and home. Good living conditions are important for them and for the reputation of the wine industry. The Government last month announced changes to the RSE scheme, increasing the number of overseas workers allowed into NZ by 1,250 to a total of 20,750. This raises the question of where they will live, and who will look after them. Three Marlborough housing providers share their experiences of what it takes to offer good worker accommodation.

Hortus, Riverlands

Accommodation is the backbone of the vineyard contracting industry, says Gus Lopez, Hortus Village manager. Hortus, one of Marlborough’s largest vineyard labour employers and accommodation providers, was launched in 2008, a year after the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme began. The business has grown from hosting a vanload of workers in 2008 to 1100-1200 workers today, each staying seven months. “Our actual business is in the field,” Gus says. “But providing world-class worker accommodation boosts

well-being, improves worker reliability, and is the right thing to do. The better we look after our people at home, the better they perform at work and the more likely they are to return.”

From Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa, and with Nauru soon to be added, 456 workers live in a 5-hectare purpose-built village in Riverlands on the southern outskirts of Blenheim. Hortus also has a 93-bed facility on Morgans Road. Tahu Huntley, workforce planning and partnership manager, said in the early days workers were lodged in existing houses. As numbers increased, the Labour Inspectorate required worker accommodation to be purpose-built or renovated to take the pressure off the housing market. Providing accommodation has been an evolving process. The first 196 beds at the Hortus Village in Riverlands were built by the original owners Dave and Kim Lewis in 2007 specifically for the RSE Scheme. Tahu says the 98 twin-share bedrooms focused on rugged materials, with separate toilet and shower blocks. A combination of solar, gas and good ventilation ensured efficient heating and cooling. In the second build, each five-bedroom unit has its own bathroom block, eliminating a 20-metre walk. The ratio of two toilets and showers for every five people exceeds the RSE minimum requirement of one to seven. The latest build in 2022 incorporates double-glazed windows with ventilation flaps to reduce moisture buildup. Heaters plus heat recovery units (HRVs) were installed in each bedroom to improve energy efficiency.

Hortus regularly surveys all RSE workers on what works and what doesn’t. Initially they requested that accommodation units include kitchens and social areas. Eventually, though, everyone agrees that after a hard day’s

work, people want to sleep in peace away from noisy communal areas. All Hortus sites have a dining hall with attached kitchens, cool stores and freezers. Ovens with induction cooktops and rice cookers cater for a range of cultures. Each bedroom has a TV and unlimited wifi. Beds are from a specialist RSE range supporting up to 500kg, as workers gather to talk with family online or watch sports.

For larger gatherings, there are six common rooms and a 100-seat movie theatre, which also serves as a chapel. Sport plays a big part in workers’ lives, and there are table tennis and pool tables, volleyball and basketball courts, football fields, pétanque and a well equipped gym. Other activities include growing vegetables and raising pigs, reflecting their lives back home in the Pacific. Gus says nothing is more important than workers feeling cared for and valued. A local pastoral care team is on call 24/7 and an on-site medical clinician is contracted to triage health issues. “You can build a palace, but without a solid system of pastoral care, it amounts to nothing,” Gus says.

Grapeworx, Blenheim

Grapeworx co-owner Susy Pouwhare says RSE workers are their biggest asset and need to be looked after well. Susy and her husband Mack started labour supply company Grapeworx Marlborough in 2001 when Mack, working as a pruner, saw the need for providing workers and accommodation for the growing viticulture industry. They continued to expand their viticulture contracting services and now, under the RSE scheme, Grapeworx employs and houses 240 workers from Thailand and Papua New Guinea. Women, single men, couples, and extended families live in five purpose-built homes plus 12 preexisting houses. The latter are gradually being phased out and replaced by more purpose-built accommodation. Susy says all exceed healthy homes standards and meet her family company’s bottom-line that they’d be happy to live

there. RSE accreditation requires accommodation to be warm, dry and fully furnished. “Many providers go beyond this minimum,” says Susy.

Grapeworx’ new purpose-built accommodation costs about $80,000-$90,0000 per bed (excluding land), and their latest build, near the New World supermarket in Blenheim, could pass for a modern motel. The brick accommodation opened in April and each two-bedroom unit houses three workers, with a shared lounge, kitchen and bathroom. The heat pump, managed by a master control, is always on so the units are warm to come home to. “Over the years we get to know what makes people feel at home, and we provide for that - Thai workers prefer small family homes with lots of hanging space. They hang everything, so we provide cupboards with coat hangers rather than drawers that just sit empty.” There is plenty of bench-space in the kitchen for rice-cookers and large pots, an electric hob, plus pantry storage for bulk foods like rice and sauces. Thai workers also like to have gardens to grow vegetables and fresh herbs. Everyone needed a place to store and maintain tools, and PNG workers want lockup areas for bikes and fishing rods.

Susy says that for many Grapeworx RSE workers, Blenheim is a home away from home. They returned year after year, building friendships with fellow workers and sometimes neighbours. “Workers are our most valuable asset and we need to treat them well. If my children were going to work overseas, I’d want to know that they’re being well looked after too,” she says. Susy would like to see all RSE-accredited businesses required to provide prospective workers with portfolios describing jobs, the region and accommodation on offer. She says they could then make an informed decision when offered, for example, a twin bedroom close to Blenheim or a place in a bunkroom far from town.

Nikau Homes, Seddon

For Steve Pellett and Bridget Ennals the key to good worker accommodation is to provide a safe and warm environment. They build and manage RSE housing, which is leased to vineyard contractor Thornhill. It is a different accommodation model, run as a standalone business. “All the workers come through Thornhill, and we get a range of nationalities – from the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Thailand,” says Steve. “It gives Thornhill, the labour supplier, security of tenure. We own and manage the property, do all the maintenance, provide cleaning and laundry services and help out where we can.” Nikau Homes provides 50 beds across three sites in and around Seddon. Their newest property, opened in 2019, is a 24-bed house that replaced the earthquake-damaged vicarage which they’d converted for RSE workers. “We repaired it after the 2013 earthquake but after further damage in the 2016 earthquake we decided it was time to start over with a new custom-build,” says Steve.

They designed the house based on previous experience. “There’s a big, airy communal area where everyone can gather and eat and spend time together. They can then go to their bedrooms for quiet or rest. We don’t have bunk rooms. We decided twin-share is a good compromise that gives peer support for each other, but also some privacy.” The kitchen area is spacious with three hobs, two ovens and a large prep area able to cope with the 6pm rush. And there is good Wifi throughout the building which is critical for helping keep in touch with families back home. Good heating and ventilation is a top priority. A diesel boiler provides underfloor heating that runs all year round to give a base heat of 20C. Each bedroom also has an individually controlled hot-water radiator. “It’s generally up around the 25C mark, but that’s what it’s there for,” says Bridget. In the winter workers often leave in the dark and come back in the dark, and curtains and windows don’t

get opened. A ventilation system draws out the moisture in each room and brings fresh air in. “We want to make life easy, especially for the winter crews,” says Steve. “It’s a long day out in the vineyard in pretty much all weathers. You want them to come home to a warm dry place, where they can have a hot shower and not worry about heating up the house first.

“We really encourage the workers to keep a clean and tidy environment. We provide clean bed linen on a regular basis; it’s free to use the laundry machines including washing powder; and there’s soap provided in all the showers. We also promote recycling of all waste packaging. We want to maintain a healthy house as best we can.”

Steve and Bridget have plans to build another 24bed unit for next winter. “We’re aiming to go next level in sustainability and efficiency. Instead of a diesel boiler, there will be an Air to Water heat pump system to heat the hot water, run by solar panels generating enough electricity to power the house. It will be a highly insulated, functional, hard-wearing building.” The Government announcement last month to lift the freeze on what workers pay for accommodation will make a difference, says Steve. “Up until these new changes, it was marginally economic if you were building from new. We’ve had massive inflation, cleaning costs have gone up, energy costs have gone up, insurance has gone up.” But Steve and Bridget see it as an investment for the industry. “We’re trying to get rid of the stigma from the past when some RSE housing was not appropriate or well managed. Our goal is to show you can build quality accommodation that is eco-friendly, efficient to run and provides a really good place to live. Validation for us is when the guys say how much they like to stay in this house.”