Nearly 300 Navy sailors are in line for a bonus worth tens of thousands of dollars, but only if they stay in service.
It’s a move by the top brass to staunch the flow of mid-rank to senior sailors leaving for greener pastures.
Weapons and combat systems technicians and communications warfare specialists are some of the trades facing shortages.
“It does worry me these are highly trained technicians and particularly on the back of the fact that we just spent 740 million dollars upgrading the two ANZAC frigates making them fit for war,” said former defence minister Ron Mark.
In a statement, the defence force admitted that the situation’s challenging its ability to crew ships as mid-level and senior positions can’t be recruited from civvy street.
“People are just jumping ship for more money,” said Jarrod Haar, a professor of human resources.
Now the Navy is making an offer, nearly 300 sailors will get $35,000 each over three years if they stay.
“This is a group of workers in New Zealand who are probably underpaid and undervalued as well, so it's good to see them getting a bit of putea back,” Haar said.
Ron Mark says the $90 million dollars in the budget for pay rises won’t be enough and that it might be time to allow sailors to unionise.
“It continues to frustrate defence force personnel that they'll go anywhere at any time to do anything, regardless of climate terrain or conditions or jeopardy and that they'll put themselves in and they have no ability to argue for a pay rise,” he said.
And there could also be more bonuses on the way the Airforce and Army are also now considering retention schemes.
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