The Forest Owners Association has taken a strong stand on pay rate breaches by forest planting contractors. The President, Peter Clark, says a recent Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment audit of pay rates and conditions in three forest regions has revealed what appears to be widespread non-compliance with employment law among forest planting crews. “We forest owners don’t pay the silviculture crews ourselves. That’s done by independent contractors. But our industry cannot condone exploitation of any sort. “We as a major primary industry are taking a stand on this. We don’t want to deprive good workers the opportunity to earn bonus money by planting more trees in a day. But on the other hand it is unacceptable to allow inexperienced planters, or those who have to travel long distances to new locations, to be deprived of what the law specifies as minimum pay.”