Wellington, May 17 NZPA - A big union and political lobbyists will tomorrow launch a petition calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the pay rates and employment in the nation's fishing industry.

The Service and Food Workers Union wants MPs to probe the industry's relationship with foreign fishing companies, foreign crewing of joint ventures, charters and local fishing vessels, and its effects on sustainable fishing practices, and jobs.

The union is being supported by the Labour, Maori and Green parties, and its assistant national secretary, Neville Donaldson, alleged some of the big fishing companies had shown callous, uncaring and disrespectful attitudes to workers.

"In the last three years over 1500 workers employed on land and at sea have lost their jobs in the seafood industry," he said.

This was because companies looked mainly at the dollar returns on their fish quota, and Mr Donaldson claimed some New Zealand workers had been replaced by foreign workers employed at pay equivalent to the minimum wage.

Foreign charter vessels play an important part in the New Zealand fishing industry, particularly in harvesting species such as squid, hoki and jack mackerel,and their crew are usually from Asia or Eastern Europe.

The previous Labour Government approved measures to improve conditions for foreign crew on foreign charter fishing vessels in New Zealand waters, including improved minimum working and living conditions, and guarantees that they were paid.

In 2007, the Government began increasing minimum rates for those crewmen to make their pay more comparable with New Zealand fishing crews, rising to a margin of $2 an hour more than the minimum wage.

But Mr Donaldson said the fishing industry had recently called on the Government to remove the requirement to pay minimum wage to foreign workers.

"This is appalling," he said. "Nobody should be employed on less than the minimum rates in the fishing industry. We call upon the House of Representatives to carry out a full inquiry."