Single-minded success - Settlement Support

REGIONAL SHARING NEWCOMERS’ STORIES AND EXPERIENCES
A valuable experience
■ Story and photography by Leigh Dome
Tui Products is a New Zealand owned and operated company that specialises in
producing quality garden products. It supplies retail garden outlets throughout New
Zealand and has several sites across the country.
Tui’s head office is situated in Mt Maunganui, alongside
its main manufacturing and distribution operation. The
South Island distribution is located in Christchurch and the
seed division is based in Palmerston North.
The Palmerston North division of Tui Products is relatively
new to the practice of employing migrant staff. It was a chance
encounter at a social event two years ago that connected Tui’s
management with a Manawatü Multicultural Centre’s representative.
Tui Products Site Manager Sheryl Morris says a casual conversation
about the company’s need for workers with the local
Ministry of Social Development’s Migrant Employment Facilitator
Axel de Maupeou d’Ableiges has “started something
special.”
“In the past we have struggled to find staff, especially during
our peak production periods in Spring and Autumn,” says
Sheryl. “Axel has been able to source willing staff for us, sometimes
at very short notice.”
Axel says Tui Products is one of over 50 businesses in the
Manawatü that use his skills as a career facilitator specifically
for migrant workers. He says Tui has a good work environment
and having a female manager is an advantage. “In many coun-
22 LINKZ | ISSUE 48 | 2011
tries, it is rare for women to hold top management positions,”
he says. “The workers have to adjust to having Sheryl as their
boss and appreciate that female managers are not uncommon
in New Zealand.”
Since forming their relationship with Axel two years ago, Tui
Products has employed nine migrants from countries as diverse
as South Africa, Bhutan and the Philippines.
Three newcomer workers, Mahesh Pandey (Nepal), Susanthe
Edirisinghe (Sri Lanka) and Doris Missamou (The Republic of
Congo) presently work as part of the Tui Products (Palmerston
North) team of eleven production staff and two managers.
All three workers have been offered and accepted permanent
full time contracts with the company.
“We accept there will be minor communication problems especially
in the early part of job training,” says Sheryl. “English
is often the worker’s second, third or even fourth language.”
Several of the workers are highly qualified in their own fields
of expertise, but have found it difficult to get a job in their
industry on arriving in New Zealand. The job can provide
welcome income until the person finds a position more suited
to their skills and experience.