Flights for seasonal workers traveling to Australia and New Zealand this month have been temporarily suspended, the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour (M.C.I.L.) has announced.

The Ministry announced the suspension of flights in a public notice issued after 2pm Wednesday. The notice was signed by the Ministry's Acting C.E.O. Fepuleai Roger Toleafoa.

Fepuleai said there were some changes to the seasonal workers programme for New Zealand and Australia and everyone is affected will be kept updated as soon as more information becomes available.

“All processes and arrangements for trips under the seasonal workers scheme have been suspended temporarily,” he said. “Please be advised that we will inform you all for additional information sometime soon.

“We thank you for your understanding as we face unprecedented times due to impacts of the COVID-19.”

A Cabinet submission by the Minister for Commerce Industry and Labour, Leatinu'u Wayne Fong to temporarily halt flight arrangements for seasonal workers after March was approved by the Cabinet in February.

Last month Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said there were some issues that were brought to their attention in relation to the scheme, which the Government needed to look at before the flight suspension was lifted.

Last month when a nationwide lockdown went into effect in Samoa, the Ministry continued its seasonal workers flights to New Zealand. So far thousands of local seasonal workers are employed in New Zealand and Australia. 

Samoa’s involvement with the New Zealand-run Recognised Seasonal Employer (R.S.E.) scheme commenced in April 2007. The R.S.E. [recognised seasonal employer scheme] is strictly for the horticulture and viticulture sectors in New Zealand with the employment period for workers ranging from three to a maximum of seven months.

Samoa’s involvement with Australia's Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme began in 2011 and continued as the Seasonal Workers Program (S.W.P.) in July 2012. 

Similar to the New Zealand-based R.S.E. program, the S.W.P. was designed to become a vital tool to meet the needs of New Zealand’s horticulture industry for recurrent labour, while also contributing to the economic development of participating countries which now include Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.