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Vanuatu’s Commissioner of Labor, Lionel Kaluat says seasonal workers who do not comply with procedures will not be entertained and any screening process of applications for seasonal employment will only complicate and delay recruiting process.
Mr Kaluat was responding to calls by the chiefs to set up a screening body that will engage the chiefs from different islands and urban centers to screen the applicants for seasonal work in Australia and New Zealand.
Chairman of the Port Vila Town Council of Chiefs and member of the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs claimed a system was already put in place in 2009 and implemented only once then was abandoned. The call also came after 29 RSE workers from Ambrym island were banned from re-engagement in the Pacific Seasonal Employment scheme.
According to Mr Kaluat, those regional employment workers whose contracts were permanently disconnected had abruptly disengaged their contracts themselves by not complying with the standard procedures for lodging complains and instead returned home on their own accord.
Australia has instituted mechanisms such as Fair Work Ombudsman to deal with workers complaints. This office gives out information and advice about workplace rights and obligations, and also investigates complaints.
Last year, there was media coverage of Vanuatu seasonal workers complaining of being under-paid and living in poor conditions. The Vanuatu seasonal workers complaints were registered, investigated and dealt with. In March, Maroochy Sunshine, a Queensland labour-hire company, was found guilty of violating labour laws by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Australia’s Weekly Times Newspaper in December reported that more than half of the 22 Vanuatu workers hired to pick fruit and vegetables in the Lockyer Valley, the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg were not paid any wages at all.
In February this year, ABC television’s “7.30 Report” revealed that a group of Fijian and Tongan workers hired under the government’s Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) were being paid as little as $A10 per week to harvest tomatoes. There were also complaints over women sharing beds inside caravans and rent was deducted from their pay. Workers have also secretly recorded AFS Contracting owner Tony Yamankol who threatened to sack the workers in response to their complaints. “If I terminate you, [then] you won’t come back to Australia [with] any other employer on this programme,” he said.
When asked to respond, the Commissioner of Labor said “We have our counterparts in Australia and New Zealand to deal with such matters and it is not up to you (worker) to take that decision to breach your contract by returning home. Contact details for the high commissioner and other relevant authority whom the workers could seek assistance were provided to them”.
With regard to the screening process, the labor commissioner said his department had disregarded the screening process anticipated by Chief Worwor because certain individuals within the process were demanding fees for the role they play. “Under this programme we don’t allow anyone to charge fees”.
“There are too many chiefs and we don’t know which one is ordained and this was congesting the traffic. We want to apply a process that is fast, transparent and efficient”, he said.
Mr Kaluat said this issue is separate from those who were alleged to have imported prohibited items such as guns, bullets, alcohol etc. Those involved are under investigation by police and customs and will be prosecuted under the laws of Vanuatu.
The firearms and bullets were confiscated by custom officials from a container registered to seasonal workers returning from New Zealand after taking part in the RSE scheme.