Both managers and Pacific employees have expressed a desire to build better relationships with each other, and both reported that stronger relationships would contribute to addressing inequities in the workplace.214 Pacific workers thrive when they are managed by people who understand their culture and background, which creates a shared workplace culture where they are more likely to feel comfortable taking on more work and engaging in new roles.215 Research by Equal Employment Opportunities Trust found that Pacific employees require stronger connection with their managers in order to feel at ease when communicating with them.216 While employers may be interested in ways to bridge the cultural disconnect, they can be unsure of how to do this.217 Engaging with their local Pacific communities is one way that managers can build stronger relationships with Pacific communities and come to understand that Pacific employees often have multiple, important roles outside of their employment within their local communities.218 These community interactions can help an employer to create a workplace that enables Pacific peoples to thrive.219 5.1.6 Excess labour and Pacific peoples Pacific workers also report excess labour in the workplace. Excess labour is labour that employees take on within their workplace that is unpaid and unrecognised. Pacific workers experience both the extra labour of being ‘the’ Pacific person in the room while also negotiating white privilege alongside Pākehā colleagues or managers who resist or refuse to recognise its existence.220 In practice, this means that a Pacific worker may be asked to do the labour of providing a culturally safe space for all Pacific employees and to provide cultural competency training for non-Pacific to engage with Pacific clients – an additional labour that may not be recognised in progression or remuneration. It may also result in Pacific workers feeling unable to critique current cultural norms within their place of employment out of fear that they will be punished for speaking up.221 5.1.7 Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme When examining the experiences of Pacific workers in Aotearoa New Zealand, it is important to note issues that have been found with the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme. The RSE scheme was established in 2007 after a push from Pacific leaders to tackle unemployment in the Pacific and provide Pacific peoples access to New Zealand currency.222 Endorsed as a “mutually beneficial development scheme”,223 the RSE scheme seeks to source a stable labour force for New Zealand producers whilst giving seasonal migrant workers the “chance to thrive economically”.224 Agricultural work is often seen as low-status, low-wage, hazardous and physically demanding, requiring workers to be available at short notice and for small employment durations. Due to these characteristics, locals can view agricultural work as unappealing, aiming instead for “more stable employment elsewhere”.225 The unattractive appearance of agricultural work paired alongside demographic shifts (an ageing workingage population and the ever-increasing rise of 214 Ministry for Pacific Peoples, Pacific Employment Action Plan, 5. 215 Auckland Co-design Lab, The Attitude Gap Challenge, 14. 216 Equal Employment Opportunities Trust, Specifically Pacific, 32. 217 The Southern Initiative, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, and Auckland Co-design Lab, Pacific Peoples’ Workforce Challenge, 10. 218 Equal Employment Opportunities Trust, Specifically Pacific, 24. 219 Auckland Co-design Lab, The Attitude Gap Challenge, 45. 220 Naepi, “Pacific Women’s Experiences Working in Universities in Aotearoa New Zealand,” 67-68; Naepi, Sereana. “I Didn’t Come to Play: Pasifika Women in the Academy.” In Critical Reflections and Politics on Advancing Women in the Academy, edited by T. Moeke-Pickering, S. Cote-Meek, and A. Pegoraro. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020, 57-58. 221 Naepi, “Pacific Women’s Experiences Working in Universities in Aotearoa New Zealand,” 67-68; Naepi, “I Didn’t Come to Play.” 222 Tuiburelevu, Litia, and Hugo Wagner-Hiliau.“Pick Your Own Damn Fruit.” E-Tangata. November 1, 2020. https://e-tangata. co.nz/comment-and-analysis/pick-your-own-damn-fruit/. 223 Tuiburelevu and Wagner-Hiliau, “Pick Your Own Damn Fruit.” 224 Tuiburelevu and Wagner-Hiliau, “Pick Your Own Damn Fruit.” 225 Abella, Manolo. Policies and Best Practices for Management of Temporary Migration. International Symposium on International Migration and Development: Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations Secretariat. Turin, Italy, 2006, 22. https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/pdf/other/turin/P03_Abella.pdf. Pacific Pay Gap Inquiry Literature Review 31