Cabinet approved one flight each for New Zealand and Australia for the month of May for the Recognised Seasonal Worker scheme.
The decision was made during its meeting on 13th April 2022, says Minister of Public Enterprises Leatinuu Wayne So’oialo in response to questions from Radio Polynesia.
He explained Cabinet’s decision to suspend the trips for Seasonal workers to Australia and New Zealand, is to allow an overall review of the Seasonal Workers Program led by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour (MCIL) as instructed by the Cabinet in early March.
Cabinet also decided to allow the continuation of the Seasonal Worker’s trips/flights to both NZ and Australia, which were already scheduled for the month of April 2022.
“This decision took into account the concerns raised by the overseas employers and the contractual arrangements that had already been prepared, concerns conveyed by our counterparts in the NZ and Australian Governments as well as Ministry preparations that were already in progress.
“Samoa’s overall Labour Mobility Program, which incorporates both NZ’s RSE (Recognized Seasonal Employer) Scheme, and Australia’s SWP (Seasonal Workers Program) and PLS (Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme) is temporarily placed on hold, pending the Review to be conducted on the overall Labour Mobility Program.
The Cabinet, however, is continuing to review its decisions on this matter regularly, due to our important bilateral engagements with our NZ and Australian donor partners, as well as our own local concerns.”
The Minister said due to the constant requests from our people who are keen to be employed in Seasonal Work in both Australia and New Zealand, as well as the concerns of our local employers who voiced objections to losing their already trained staff to the Seasonal Employment schemes, a Submission Paper to the Cabinet was put together by the MCIL which was considered by the Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday 28th April 2022.
Based on the submitted Paper (PK), Cabinet has approved 1 flight each for NZ and Australia, for the month of May.
In collaboration with MCIL, the Paper approved by Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday 28th April, included the endorsement of a 13 members Committee, comprising of representatives from our key Govt Ministries involved in the Labour Mobility Schemes mentioned earlier, representatives from the NZ and Australian Governments, as well as Community and Private Sector representatives, who will work collaboratively as a Committee in overseeing the conducting of the Review on the Labour Mobility Schemes.
