But Oamaru Meats director Richard Thorp does not deny that the meatworks, which is beginning a three-year expansion, could bring in foreign workers in future.
The Otago Daily Times was contacted yesterday by a member of the public who said rumours were "rife'' the Chinese-owned company that owned Oamaru Meats recently put staff off for an extended period not because of a lack of beef being available, as reported, but because it was replacing the workers with imported Chinese workers.
Oamaru Meats director Richard Thorp rejected the suggestion outright yesterday.
"There is just no foundation to that whatsoever; none,'' he said.
About 40 freezing workers were issued lengthy seasonal layoff notices by Oamaru Meats about three weeks ago.
Mr Thorp said the 14 weeks indicated as a term of the seasonal layoff was a maximum and the company was "trying everything we can to make sure we can shorten that 14 weeks''.
Otago Southland Meat Workers' Union president Daryl Carran also said he could "completely dispel'' the rumours.
"I've never been informed of any such suggestion,'' he said.
"The company would breach their agreement ... if they tried to employ new workers when they had workers, skilled workers, that had been laid off doing the same role.''
In January, Fairfax reported that as the company invested up to $8million in the plant to allow Oamaru Meats to supply retail stores in China, it would look to China for employees.
"It was likely the company would employ more Chinese for the work ‘because of their level of knowledge, expertise and skill set','' Mr Thorp was reported as saying.
Yesterday, he said the company had started discussions with Immigration New Zealand, but noted the company had no formal applications lodged with the agency.
"We are making it clear - and we are on record as saying - we will look at bringing some migrant labour in, but that will be no different to ... our small community here in North Otago where there is a lot of migrant labour helping with our dairy industry.
"And sourcing labour for our seasonal work activity can be difficult from time to time, along with requiring some solid expertise.
"But I am not hiding from the fact that as a business in time we will look to have some migrant labour here at the factory, for sure.''
He said the conversation with Immigration New Zealand was "more about understanding what the ground rules are, what the test case is, what actually has to be accomplished, really''.
"We're committed to employing people who are Kiwi-born, or passport-holders, or people with the appropriate work visas; when we exhaust those avenues and we require more labour, as a business who wants to increase its export dollars, we will look to engage migrant labour when we can.''
One Chinese national worked at Oamaru Meats providing advice on the Chinese market.
"I have one person on a 12-month visa. The visa has been issued by the New Zealand Government. That individual was paid from China and that individual is helping me write [beef] specifications, check quality and help gather data for our parent - it wouldn't be unusual given the amount of money that this Chinese company has invested ...to have some person assisting us.''
