Concern raised about seasonal workers

DEPUTY Prime Minister Davis Steven is calling on the Labour Department to address the problem of Papua New Guineans being taken to New Zealand and Australia for seasonal work and having their rights denied.
“People are luring naïve labourers because labour officers are not doing their job. They are supposed to make the public know that they are the rightful agency to facilitate seasonal work,” Steven said.
Steven, who is also the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, said that he was in Alotau, Milne Bay, last week and heard of an individual going to churches recruiting seasonal workers to work on farms in Australia for a fee of K150 each.
“Such conmen are flourishing because the Labour Department are not policing this and our people are becoming vulnerable to exploitation.”
Steven made the comments on Friday during the handover of the Labour and Industrial Relations Ministry from Mehrra Kipefa to his successor Alfred Manase.
Steven said the recent reports of New Zealand Labour and Immigration officers rescuing 12 PNG labourers and returning them home was a challenge to Labour Department to step up their efforts.
New Zealand Immigration officer Marc Piercey said they had sent 12 PNG workers home last month after discovering them working without pay for about three months on a vineyard in Hawke’s Bay.
Piercy said the 12 who had paid more than NZ$1,000 (K2,221) each entered New Zealand on holiday visas.
The men participated in the Man Up Programme while the women helped out in a kitchen, catering for church events.