Page 17 - Islands Business March 2022

Labour Migration Labour Migration

It also outlined the consequences of absconding, warning
“your visa may be cancelled” and “you may bring shame to
your family’s reputation”.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
the new scheme will better protect worker wellbeing and
provide greater flexibility for staff to move to different em-
ployers.
Samoa’s Labour Minister, Leatinuu Faumuina Wayne Sooialo,
says Cabinet will monitor the situation closely and could con-
sider removing Samoa as a beneficiary country to the scheme.
Vanuatu has also launched an inquiry into its labour mobility
programmes. There are 4,500 Vanuatu workers in Australia
under the scheme, based on the 2019 and 2020 numbers
released by the Vanuatu government.
But whether the Samoan government will support its work-
ers in Australia has been undermined by comments by labour
attaché to Australia, Aufa’i Fulisiailagitele Saleuesile, who
Fijian abattoir workers who had just arrived in Australia under the Pacific Labour
Scheme, made headlines earlier this month when they helped rescue the elderly called on Samoans not to join the United Workers Union.
from an aged care home in flooded Lismore.
“The white people, who are in these unions, there are
some unions that their performance are not good on the job,
from approved employers. there are some unions who just came to ruin, come to look
Despite calls for Border Force to crack down on dodgy for destruction, seeking the bad,” according to his comments,
labour hire firms, none has been prosecuted. published in The Age. The newspaper noted his comments,
Instead, Border Force last August raided the home of made in Samoan language, have been checked and translated
Christian missionaries Geoff and Jane Smith. They told the by two translators.
Senate the raid came after they provided housing and pastoral
care to one worker, who was allegedly sacked when he was editor@islandsbusiness.com
declared unfit for work because he had a mental breakdown.
Geoff Smith said a BF officer told him: “We want to get
information from you that you’ve been aiding and abetting
workers. You’ve been getting them work [and] you’ve been TRADE MARK CAUTIONARY NOTICE IN MICRONESIA
receiving money”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), an
No charges have been laid against the missionaries. Inter-governmental Specialized Agency of the United Nations, of Viale
Instead, the federal government launched a campaign to try delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Roma, Italy, does hereby provide notice
and prevent workers from fleeing their jobs, with a graphic that it claims proprietorship of the certification trade mark
poster warning workers to “be wary of people who may prom-
ise you better work, more money or a visa to live permanently
in Australia”.

WHAT THE CHANGES MEAN:
in relation to:
• The new scheme combines the Seasonal Worker
Programme and Pacific Labour Scheme into one unit, Semi-worked woods and veneers.
the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme (PALM). Containers and boxes of wood, loading and transport pallets of
wood.
• A new upper time limit for visas of up to four years (it
was three). Disinfestation services and vermin extermination for semi-worked
woods and veneers, containers and boxes of wood, loading and
• A nine-month visa stay period to all seasonal workers, transport pallets of wood.
including those with an initial contract for a shorter Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) cau-
period of work. tions that any use of the trade mark or any confusingly similar trade
mark in relation to any of these goods and services or similar goods
• Seasonal workers can apply onshore for a long-term and services, would be seen as infringement of their rights and that
visa, where they have been identified by their employer they will take such action deemed necessary to protect those rights.
as suitable for ongoing work.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) can be
• Workers can move between employers more easily contacted care at their address for service:
to “better meet workforce needs and maximise their AJ Park, Level 22, Aon Centre, 1 Willis Street, Wellington 6011,
earnings”. New Zealand, mail@ajpark.com

Islands Business, March 2022 17