The Lorneville plant will employ 100 overseas workers for the 2018-2019 season after Alliance's successful application to Immigration New Zealand.

Immigration New Zealand has given approval to Alliance Group to hire 100 overseas workers for its Lorneville plant at Invercargill.

Alliance people and safety general manager Chris Selbie, in a statement, said the company welcomed the decision because it would help ease the shortage of skilled and unskilled employees at the Lorneville plant.

"The labour shortages and day-to-day absenteeism at our plants is costing the co-operative approximately $20 million a year in lost value and we still require additional people at our plants."

He was unable to comment at this stage on where the workers would come from and live.

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"Given the application has only just been approved, it is too early to say where we will be sourcing the workers from and their accommodation requirements. They will be required for employment between January-May, 2019."

Immigration NZ manager Michael Carley indicated that Alliance had provided supporting evidence of the lack of availability of New Zealand citizens or residence class visa holders to be trained to do the work.

However, each decision was made on the merits of the particular application and would not set a precedent for any future application which might be lodged, he said.

The application had been strenuously opposed by the New Zealand Meatworkers Union.

Otago-Southland union secretary Gary Davis said he was "absolutely gutted at the decision", because of the 700 Southlanders who had been turned away for work at the plant last season, and could be this season.

He believed the workers would be sourced from China.

Davis said he not yet been informed of the number of candidates who had applied for jobs at the meat plants this season.

However, the union continued to be concerned about a possible age bias, he said.

He believed from the 100 workers who started work recently, only one of them was over 50 years of age.

Half a dozen of them had gone out to do their fitness test and had been turned down, "and they've [Alliance] got the cheek to bring in overseas workers to suck up to Grand Farm", he said.

Alliance began a partnership with Chinese lamb giant Grand Farm 20 years ago.

Selbie offered no comment regarding the union's concern, and said the company could not comment on individual circumstances.

He said analysis for last season showed Alliance had employed almost 84 per cent of all candidates who met the pre-employment medical criteria including passing a drug test, "ensuring they were fit and able to perform what can be physically demanding roles in processing at our Lorneville plant".

"We engaged with the union in relation to the submission of the Immigration NZ application and we will continue to talk constructively with them about our recruitment challenges."

The company employs more than 2500 people in Southland during the peak processing season and would be seeking more than 700 people for roles at the Lorneville and Mataura plants this season.

Alliance recently applied to Immigration NZ for 40 boners and slaughterman for the Mataura plant.

Davis acknowledged that there was a shortage of meat workers but said Alliance wasn't doing enough to help.

"There's not enough training, and it's totally gutting that workers are not being given enough opportunity to gain skills.

By bringing in overseas workers, Southland people were being denied opportunities, he said.

Selbie refuted this stating that the company was investing in training and upskilling its existing people to ensure they had opportunities to further their careers.