lease or occupancy of such housing on termination of the workers’ contracts of employment; and (c) rents charged should be in conformity with the principle set out in Paragraph 4 above, and in any case should not include a speculative profit. (4) The provision by employers of accommodation and communal services in payment for work should be prohibited or regulated to the extent necessary to protect the interests of the workers. 84. While the government has set minimum worker accommodation standards for RSE Workers,59 it appears that these standards are not being met or enforced. Furthermore, healthy home standards set out in the Residential Tenancies Act do not appear to be complied with. 85. The Commission observed several purposebuilt accommodation units that were relatively new and in good condition. They were warm, dry, had Wi-Fi and a television in a common room. It was common practice for four workers to share a bedroom, with up to six bedrooms in one unit. Each person was charged $150 per week, making the average weekly rent $3,600 per week. Workers were subjected to five-minute limits on their showers. Right to culture: restrictions on kava 86. Many workers told the Commission that they were banned from consuming kava for the duration of their employment. The Commission observed formal disciplinary warnings for those who were caught having consumed kava in their personal time. Many workers found the prohibition of drinking kava to be offensive because it is seen as an intrinsic part of many Pacific peoples’ 18 culture.60 Industry leaders informed the Commission that such bans were necessary to ensure that RSE scheme workers would behave themselves. 87. Kava plays a unique role in Pacific culture and is integral to many Pacific peoples’ cultural and social lives. It is a curtailment of the personal freedom of workers and the right to one’s culture under s 20 NZBORA to control workers activities, such as kava drinking, outside of work hours (as long as these activities do not infringe on their ability to work). Employers should not be permitted to control the leisure time activities of seasonal workers. The ILO has suggested that penalties should be put in place for doing so.61 Right to freedom of association: Union membership 88. The Commission repeatedly heard about RSE employers warning workers against joining a trade union. We were told that in some cases when workers had joined a union, they were not selected to come back to work for the following season. 89. The Commission also spoke to representatives of unions, who informed us that they faced barriers in assisting their union members. In some instances, they were banned from visiting union members in their homes in their personal time. 90. Given the temporary nature of the RSE scheme and the ability for employers to choose the hiring for each new season, the threats and repercussions of joining a trade union can go unregulated and thus unenforced, risking a breach of the freedom of association. 59 See https://worktheseasons.co.nz/uploads/rse-redeployment/worker-accommodation-standards-rse.pdf 60 Aporosa, S. ‘Apo’. (2019). Kava and ethno-cultural identity in Oceania. In S. Ratuva (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity (pp. 1–15). Singapore: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_134-1 61 See International Labour Organization, Seasonal worker schemes in the Pacific through the lens of international human rights and labour standards, Technical report at p. 164 https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-suva/ documents/publication/wcms_847010.pdf. Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) Scheme: Human rights issues for seasonal workers in Aotearoa New Zealand