The New Zealand Meatworkers Union is opposing a move by the Alliance Group to import 100 overseas workers for its Southland plants, because it says hundreds of the region's own people are crying out for work.

Alliance manufacturing general manager Willie Wiese confirmed on Monday that the company was recruiting, because of a worker shortage.

Sourcing seasonal employees was "one of the industry's biggest challenges", he said

Alliance employs about 4500 seasonal employees throughout New Zealand including more than 2000 in Southland.

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However, Otago-Southland Meat Workers Union secretary Gary Davis said the union would strenuously oppose the move, with hundreds of Southlanders vying for those jobs and being rejected at Southland plants.

The union was notified by Immigration NZ on Friday about the Alliance application and invited to put in a submission by August 19.

Davis said the news "had got me quite angry because we are seeing so many turned away".

"Local people are applying but they're not getting the jobs."

In October,1000 people had applied for jobs at the Alliance Lorneville plant, and only 400 had been successful, he said.

"And they [Alliance] have got the cheek to say that they can't fill the jobs ... if there weren't the people available I would not have a problem."

Wiese said there was a shortage of workers.

"Employing New Zealanders is always Alliance's preference, however given the significant shortages of skilled and unskilled candidates at processing plants over recent years, we do need to look overseas for employees to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of our farmers and customers [...]".

The company also ran extensive recruitment campaigns across New Zealand and worked with a range of organisations including Work and Income, the Ministry for Social Development and local development agencies to source staff, he said.

Davis believed some unsuccessful Southlanders who applied for work at the Lorneville plant who had passed the medical and fitness test were discriminated against because of age - some applicants were in their 50s - and possibly for past injuries and existing ailments. Employers were not wanting to take risks by employing them, he said.

The drug testing was also a factor, he said.

A methamphetamine user was more likely to get a job than a cannabis user, because meth passed out of the system within six to eight hours compared with marijuana which could take days, even weeks to clear and was picked up on the standard urine test. Saliva testing, which could detect any drug use within 12 hours, was a more accurate test to judge whether a worker was impaired, he said.

Wiese said Alliance rejected "​any suggestion our recruitment practices exclude suitable local candidates".

However, Davis believed the recruitment criteria was "far too tight" including the fitness test and employment conditions "too tough".

"They treat them [meatworkers] as people who work fulltime, and who are employed all year round when they're only employed four months of the year."

An Alliance spokesperson said the company would not share information about its employment criteria, because it was commercially sensitive.

Davis was concerned about precedents being set.

It could mean hundreds more Southlanders missing out on work if more overseas workers were allowed to come into the country, he said.

"If they're not employing local people and if they are allowed to employ 100 new ones this season, it could be 200 next year."

"It's not good enough that they're going to Immigration NZ and bypassing local people and given the housing situation, where are they going to live?"

Alliance said the proportion of overseas workers employed was less than 1 per cent at plant across the country and that number was even lower in the South Island, a spokesman said.

Otago Southland Employers' Association chief executive Virginia Nicholls said the Alliance move did not surprise her.

"There are shortages all over New Zealand and Otago-Southland and in different industries."

She said it was clear from other industries, such as the health sector, that employers could not get enough workers and were having to apply to Immigration NZ to obtain more, and that this had been going on for quite some time.

But an application for 100 workers was a significant number, she said.

"The other factor is that Southland's unemployed is the lowest in New Zealand, so that's got to be affecting those plants."

She said for both skilled and unskilled occupations, employers were finding it "very difficult to get workers and get them to stay".

It was an issue that was being talked about within the economic strategies of the region, about how to attract more people and workers.

Southland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Sheree Carey declined to answer questions on Tuesday about the overseas workers situation in the south, but indicated the chamber would respond in 24 hours via a press release.