Tongan labourers look for increased opportunity in Australia [1]
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - 22:42. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Tonga is keen to explore the offer by Australia for manual labourers to work in their cotton fields, cane farms, tourism and accommodation industry, and even in their mining industry, said Meleoni Uera, the Deputy Director of Tonga's newly established Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is also responsible for employment.
Meleoni said that there is a sense of urgency for Tonga to take advantage of the offer, and the Minister, Lord Vaea would visit Australia soon.
She said that the opportunity for Tongans to work in the tourism and the accommodation industry sounded interesting. However, areas where the demand could be for women workers, was something that needed to be carefully looked into. Currently only 8 per cent of Tongan seasonal workers who went to New Zealand were women, but some had experienced problems with their jobs because they became pregnant during their working tenure, she said.
New Zealand started offering a Seasonal Workers' Scheme for some Pacific Island countries, including Tonga in 2008, followed by Australia in 2009. Currently Australia was becoming more attractive because of the greater variety of jobs available.
Meleoni said there was no competition between the two countries, though there were marked differences. In New Zealand, the work available is mainly fruit picking, while in Australia, there is a mixture of fruit and vegetable picking.
The minimum weekly working hours available was 30 hours in New Zealand whereas, it was 38 hours in Australia, and while the minimum hourly rate in New Zealand was $13.50 an hour, it was $19 an hour in Australia, she said.
During the past few weeks two officers, Lafaele Lupo from the New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE); and Simon Strasiotto, the director of the Department for Seasonal workers Scheme in Australia visited Tonga, touring the country as part of a domestic awareness program to inform the people about the scheme, its benefits and some possible draw-backs
Nesi 'Otunuku, who is working on the Seasonal Workers' Scheme at the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the public should have some understanding of the recruiting process to save some of them from being misled.
She said there were two options.
One option allows the Ministry to recruit seasonal workers from the community through the Town Officers. An employer in New Zealand or Australia would also apply to their governments for a permission to bring into the country seasonal workers from Tonga. Once their application is approved, they then contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tonga, which would make an arrangement for the employer to meet and select his workers from their pool of selected seasonal workers. After the employer had made his selection he would then pay for the working visa of his employees, being a half of their return airfares, which the employees will pay back once they start earning. Accommodation in New Zealand will be free but the employees have to pay for their food.
There is a second option whereby employers or contracted agencies in New Zealand or Australia would apply for permission to bring in seasonal workers from Tonga. Once that was approved they would come to Tonga and recruit their workers.
Nesi said that both options had their advantages and there were number of success stories, one of a seasonal worker who was hired by his employer in New Zealand to recruit workers for him. The down side to Option Two was that some contractors demanded money up-front from those that they had recruited and then disappeared not to be see again.
She said that people in the outer islands complained that their husbands, sons or daughter who were supposed to be already overseas working, were still in Nuku'alofa several months later, training to be fit, while waiting for their visa and air-tickets to go overseas.
Nesi however was optimistic that all these minor hiccups could be ironed out and that Tonga could take advantage of the employment opportunities being offered by Australia and New Zealand.