A pilot guest-worker scheme in New Zealand where Pacific Islanders are recruited for up to seven months to help with unskilled labour such as fruit picking has financial benefits but also significant social costs, a report has found.
A proposal to introduce a similar scheme, where Pacific Islanders could enter Australia on short-term visas to fill labour shortages in orchards and vineyards, will be taken to cabinet in the next two months.
An analysis by Swinburne's Institute for Social Research said if Australia was serious about learning from the New Zealand pilot, which started in April last year, it needed to pay more attention to the welfare of Pacific workers and their home communities.
It said while the wages of seasonal workers benefited entire communities in places such as Tonga and Vanuatu, it should not overshadow the significant social costs of temporary migration for work.
"Seasonal workers are separated from family for extended periods of time, which can impact on children's welfare and education and place an extra burden on the elderly left in the village," the report says.
Report author Nic Maclellan said unions and community organisations needed to play a greater role to ensure workers were not exploited.
He said there had been disputes between seasonal workers and employers in New Zealand over:
■poor housing;
■contracts being set by piece rate (for example per bin or per tree) at minimum wage rather than market rates; and
■the contentious issue of deductions, where workers were told the gross rate of pay, but not informed of employer deductions to cover housing, transport costs and air fares.
"The protection of workers' entitlements and health safety is a major concern in precarious industries like horticulture, agriculture and construction, which often operate in areas with low union coverage, limited government regulation and a highly casualised, mobile workforce," the report said.
Despite years of pressure from Pacific Island leaders and the farming and horticulture lobby in Australia, the Howard Government refused to create a seasonal labour scheme.
A 2006 World Bank report said accepting guest workers would boost Australia's gross domestic product by almost $400 million a year.
Mr Maclellan said that in the past, politicians had argued that granting a seasonal work program should be a trade-off in negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Forum Island countries.
However, if a guest-worker scheme was a genuine development opportunity, it should not be linked to free trade agreements, he said.
The report recommended AusAid be involved in the scheme, to ensure that development outcomes in the Pacific were central to its purpose.
Mr Maclellan said it was important for Australia to develop clear policy on why seasonal workers should be targeted only at small island developing nations in our region.
He said the Government should look at ways of making it cheaper for Pacific workers to send money to their families.
Email a friend