Village elders to answer directly to Ministry of Employment - Bala

Village elders will answer directly to the Ministry of Employment if people from their village breach the Seasonal Workers Scheme regulations while working in Australia or New Zealand.

This has been stressed by the Minister for Employment, Parveen Bala while responding to NFP Leader, Professor Biman Prasad who asked if the ban applied by the then Employment Minister for four villages in 2017 is still in place.

Prasad says that this ban was for some who did not follow the regulations while in Australia and New Zealand in 2017 and asked if the ban was discriminatory having been applied to the whole village.

Bala says there are no bans in place for any Village or Community at current and they have included village elders in the recruitment process.

Meanwhile, Bala has also revealed that 946 Fijians have worked under the seasonal workers scheme in New Zealand and Australia since 2015 which is a significant increase.

He says that this year up until January 29th two seasonal workers have been sent to New Zealand and interviews is currently underway in Ovalau.

He adds this year up to the 31st of last month, 15 Fijians have been sent to work under the programme in Australia.