Recognised Seasonal Workers

Samoa’s New Zealand-based Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Liaison Officer, Lemalu Nele Leilua said there is no room for nonsense and bad behaviour.

“This is in which you are not going to New Zealand to look for permanent residency by forgetting your matrimonial vows. And don’t think that you will get away with it under my watch,” Lemalu warned the workers.

“Infidelity has led to many past workers fall from the RSE program and has left nothing but misery and embarrassment for their families and our government,” she added.

The RSE scheme was established in 2007 and allows the horticulture and viticulture industries to recruit workers from overseas for seasonal work when there are not enough New Zealand workers.

Over the last ten years, the scheme has grown not only in the number of participant employers and workers, but in economic benefits that have gone beyond New Zealand to the wider Pacific.

The proposed agreement between the villages and government relates to the New Zealand Recognized Seasonal Employees (RSE)), Australia's Seasonal Workers Program, (SWP), Canterbury Initiative Trade Employment and Approval in Principal Scheme, (AIP) in New Zealand.

The MOU is for village leaders to play a leading role in mentoring and monitoring their representatives who will be employed under the Regional Seasonal Worker initiatives.