Wellington, July 24 NZPA - An industry group is fighting the Labour Department's decision to remove scaffolding from a list that makes it easier to get approval for migrants to work in this country.

Industry group Scaffolding and Rigging New Zealand (Sarnz) today said an acute shortage of up to 200 skilled scaffolders had forced companies to enlist labourers to help with scaffolding tasks.

That meant greater supervision, lower productivity and ultimately higher costs, Sarnz said.

The shortage of skilled scaffolders also increased the risk of accidents and injuries on construction sites.

Sarnz has launched a campaign to overturn the decision to remove scaffolders from the immediate skills shortage list.

Organisation president Graham Burke said the shortage continued to be in the area of skilled scaffolders with sufficient experience and advanced qualifications to run a crew or a project.

The industry was desperately in need of scaffolders with minimum practical experience of between five and 10 years in the industry and a breadth of experience in areas such as commercial, industrial and petro-chemical scaffolding, he said.

Removing scaffolding from the skills shortage list compromised the ability of existing scaffolding companies to take on jobs that they did not have enough staff with the necessary skills to perform.

Ministry of Economic Development training schemes established to help address the problem were inadequate with poor retention rates, Mr Burke said.

"The construction industry is expected to lead an economic upturn in New Zealand. With almost all construction activity requiring scaffolding, it is critical that we build an adequate skills base to meet the demand and maintain the highest levels of safety.

"We should be taking the opportunity to attract skilled scaffolders from places like the UK, where the recession has hit the construction sector much harder than in NZ."

NZPA