Australian growers snub Pacific guest worker scheme
Updated
Australia's Pacific Seasonal Workers Pilot Scheme is still struggling to get off the ground. The scheme was intended to help Australian growers fill labour gaps by inviting Pacific Islanders to take up seasonal work. After months of negotiations, Australia finalised agreements with Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tonga in December last year. But, it came too late for many of the country's growers - the season was well underway and they looked elsewhere for workers. Of the 100 possible visas made available, just 56 were filled. A year later, it's beginning to look like many of the same mistakes are about to be made.
Presenter: Helene Hofman
Speakers: Paul Kiley, Resources Manager, All Recruiting Services; Kris Newton, Chief Executive, Horticulture Australia Council and Lionel Kaluat, Vanuatu's Labour Commissioner
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SMITH: Any pilot scheme is necessarily restricted and restrictive but this is very good news for the Pacific and we think the Pacific will see it as such.
HOFMAN: That was Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith speaking in August 2008. Back then the Australian government was finalising the details of Australia's Pacific Seasonal Workers Pilot Scheme, which would allow Pacific Islanders fill the gap for seasonal workers. As Stephen Smith explained the pilot would be restricted. It was up to the growers to approach labour hire companies to recruit Pacific Islanders if they couldn't get local workers and were prepared to foot a part of the travel expenses and administration costs.
Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tonga were approached to take part and several months later in December last year, finalised an agreement with Australia. Phase one was then ready to get underway with 100 visas made available. But by then it was already too late for many of the country's growers. The season was well underway and the growers had been forced to look elsewhere for labour. In the end just 56 places were filled. It was hoped that many of those delays could be avoided this year to allow more growers and Pacific Islanders take advantage of the 2,400 visas now available as part of Phase two of the pilot.
But Paul Kiley, the Resources Manager with All Recruiting Services, one of the three government-approved labour hire companies, says so far that hasn't been the case.
KILEY: We're in negotiations at the moment with a number of growers but none of them have signed on the bottom line yet to bring the workers out.
HOFMAN: Not a single one?
KILEY: Not one, from us, I'm not aware of the other three labour hire firms, but we haven't got one grower at the moment. And we've been looking at growers since August, September, and yeah we would have hoped to have workers out in the field now. But none of the growers have agreed to our rates.
HOFMAN: The cost of hiring a Pacific Islander is one of the reasons growers say they've been reluctant to take part in the pilot. As the employer they're required to pay half the return airfare, about AU$800, plus an additional AU$100 in transport costs. Once the Pacific Island workers in the field they cost one dollar more an hour than the legal rate for local workers to cover the cost of administration. The additional cost seemed more reasonable two years ago when growers were facing a serious labour shortage, but that situation has now changed as Kris Newton the Chief Executive of the Horticulture Australia Council explains.
NEWTON: Last year and this year has been a decreased demand in labour in Australia horticulture, and it's a rather ironic twist actually. It's probably due we think in part to the global recession, but it's not because the growers can't afford to pay the workers. It seems to be a combination of factors; one of them the impact on the resources sector. So many of our people in regional Australia were working for example for the mines, got retrenched, are now back home and looking for work. Of course no grower expects that once the economy picks up again and the people go back to the mines that will stay that way, but that has been an impact. And equally it appears on the backpackers, who are the primarily the major source of our workers apart from local Australian workers, and it seems that there's been anecdotal evidence anyway that the backpackers are much keener on getting a job and retaining a job and therefore are much more reliable than they have been in the past. So no, for the last couple of seasons demand has remained high but supply has also reversed its trend of the last 15 years and actually been pretty much available and quite reliable for a change. We were certainly thinking when the pilot was announced that the 800 visas a year from the Pacific that they were offering for the pilot was totally insufficient to meet even the demands of the pilot. However it turns out in 20-20 hindsight to have probably been a good figure. I think we'll be lucky to fill that this year. Once the impact of the global recession recedes however I think all bets are off.
HOFMAN: Paul Kiley says there's more to the fall-off in demand for Pacific Islanders than the global recession or even this year's drought.
KILEY: Well there's the market conditions but our main problem is the opposition we get in terms of the available workers there at the moment. There are people on working holiday visas that are here now to work rather than holiday and work. There's people on student visas that are being paid for 40 hours rather than 20 hours, and there's people who come out on visitor's visas and then go off and work in the fruit picking industry when they're not supposed to. And all those people get paid well and truly below the award rate of pay.
HOFMAN: The Australian government has been holding regular meetings with the labour hire firms and says it's committed to getting the pilot off the ground. A spokeswoman from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations confirmed that they have just issued a fresh request for expressions of interest from growers.
Meanwhile the three Pacific Island countries signed up to participate in the pilot say they have not yet been approached to send over workers this year. Vanuatu's Labour Commissioner, Lionel Kaluat says it's unfortunate, but says they were aware of the terms of the scheme.
KALUAT: It may be disappointing but people have to understand the situation Australia's facing right. The policy's very clear that while it's a market-driven scheme, as we all know the priority rests with the Australian people to work in the agricultural sector then that would be the first part for the Australian growers before they look outside of Australia. So that policy's very clear.
HOFMAN: The second phase of the pilot which will award a maximum of 2,400 seasonal work visas to Pacific Islands is said to run until 2012 when the success of the scheme and its future will be reviewed by the Australian government.
