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  • Notice of Annual Returns

    Notice of Annual Returns

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  • Employment Annual Return

    Employment Annual Return

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  • Updated Annual Return Form

    Updated Annual Return Form

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  • Business Establishment Census 2022

    Business Establishment Census 2022

    Check our brochures:

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    Download brochure 2
  • NEW DUE DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF ANNUAL RETURNS BY 30TH OF JUNE 2022

    NEW DUE DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF ANNUAL RETURNS BY 30TH OF JUNE 2022

    Due to the Covid-19 Community Transmission and respective measures for containment, lockdown and curfew measures, in March of this year 2022, the employer's Annual Returns to Department of Labour has been delayed from submission in time therefore the Department of Labour has decided to extend the due date to 1ST of June 2022.

    Download Directive | English
  • DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR DIRECTIVES AND POTENTIAL POLICY RESPONSES IN CASE OF A COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

    DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR DIRECTIVES AND POTENTIAL POLICY RESPONSES IN CASE OF A COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

    The global pandemic has severely affected the employment in our domestic market. Consequently, Businesses have closed and around 55 percent of formal workers have ceased regular contributions to the VNPF and evidence suggests that internal migration to rural areas has increased.

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  • 2022 RECRUITING LICENSING DIRECTIVE

    2022 RECRUITING LICENSING DIRECTIVE

    The Department of Labour and Employment Services wishes to advise that few changes will be added as conditions for the application for License for the year 2022 under the Labour Mobility programs to reflect the necessity of strengthening compliance with Labour Laws including but not limited to Seasonal Employment Act and Labour mobility national policies.

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  • Employment Vanuatu Portal

    The Employement Vanautu portal is the best free existing online platform that creates visibility for Job Seekers & Employers in Vanuatu and, helps job seekers find jobs and employers find workers in Vanuatu.

    This website has been developed by the Department of Labour and Employment Services under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

    In partnership with the Vanuatu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Vanuatu Council of Trades Union, the website aims at making fully accessible the information on the Vanuatu’ job market.

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  • Notice To The Public

    NOTICE - The section of the Industrial Relations (IR) of employment disputes / complaints with Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) section will no longer receive any new complaints from 15th December 2020 to 15th January 2021Click Here for more information.

    NOTIS - Section blong Industrial Relation (IR) blong ol complaint blong wok mo section blong Occupational Health mo Safety (OHS) Inomo risivim eni new complaint stat long 15th December 2020 kasem 15th January 2021.Click Here for more information.

  • Work Permit Notice

    This Notice is to advise all employers and non-citizens applying for a work permit that is effective from 1st of January 2021. All business house will have to pay the full work permit fees and taxes as follows;Click Here!!

  • Notice of Annual Returns to all Employers and Business House

    This notification serves to advise all Employers of their legal obligation to provide to the Department of Labour and Employment Services their annual returns.

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  • New Labour Office At Malampa Province

    New Labour Office At Malampa Province

    Labour Department, through the Commissioner, Mrs Murielle Meltenoven has vision to expand the office to Malampa Province, to take Government to the people by launching new office site at PWD building at Lakatoro, Malekula. This initiative event was coordinate by our Deputy Commissioner Jalen Willie with the rest of Labour department team at Malekula for the official launching and establishment of Labour office for Malampa province.
  • Department of Labour and Employment Service New Office Building

    Department of Labour and Employment Service New Office Building

    This year, 29th October 2020, it has been officially pronounced by the Deputy Prime Minister Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau by officiating new ground breaking of new building for Labour Department as a miles stone of achievement. The department of Labour through the funding partners Australian Government who have support the project to be nearly constructed soon.
  • NOTICE: TO ALL BUSINESS HOUSES-CANCELLATION OF TAXES TO WORK PERMIT

    NOTICE: TO ALL BUSINESS HOUSES-CANCELLATION OF TAXES TO WORK PERMIT

    As you will recall the Minister (COM) at its meeting of monday 30th March 2020 has approved the Vanuatu Government recommended Financial & Economic Stimilus Package to all business houses in Vanuatu. Part of the support provided by the Government is the cancellation of taxes to Work Permit.

    READ MORE HERE
  • Department of Labour and Employment Service Retreat

    Department of Labour and Employment Service Retreat

    The Department of Labour this year 2020, has planned a 3 days retreat at Sunset Bungalo from 28th to 30th of September .Within those 3 days, each units has gone through reports presentations and 2020 business plan. And focus on 2021 Business plan to achieve NSDP objective.

  • Supporting stranded seasonal workers to keep working with more flexible options

    Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

    The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours per week) and with no limit on roles that they can do. The workers will need to have an employment agreement with an RSE employer, who will need to continue to honour commitments under the RSE scheme. Any additional time an RSE worker spends in New Zealand will not count towards the time they would ordinarily have to spend overseas before they can return for seasonal work.

    Each year up to 14,400 workers, mainly from Pacific Island nations, arrive in New Zealand to fill seasonal labour shortages in the horticulture and viticulture industries.

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  • Changes to RSE respond to COVID-19

    As part of the Government’s COVID-19 response, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has established a process for RSE visa holders to move to other RSE employers who have an Agreement to Recruit (ATR) if their existing employment is coming to an end. However, as the demand for seasonal workers in the horticulture and viticulture industries reduces over the winter months, there is not enough work available to support all the RSE visa holders still in New Zealand while they await repatriation flights. This has been identified as a problem that is leading to an increase of behavioural incidents and concerns around the welfare of workers.

    It is fair to say at this time, many RSE workers are desperate to return home.

    In response, the Minister of Immigration has decided to grant a Special Direction, issuing new, more flexible limited visas to RSE workers without work.

    This is a short-term, time-limited measure to allow flexibility for RSE visa holders who are without work while RSE workers await flights to return home.

    Changes enabling more flexible visas: • Reducing the minimum hours employers are required to offer workers from 30hrs to 15hrs (in recognition that some RSE employers have some work available but under current policy couldn’t offer further work unless they could meet the 30hr requirement). • RSE workers will be able to undertake more roles in horticulture and viticulture, beyond picking, pruning and packing. • Subject to worker agreement, RSE workers will now have the ability to work in other sectors outside horticulture and viticulture. RSE employers will be able to contract these workers into other sectors but to safeguard workers, RSE employers must maintain the employment arrangement and pastoral care responsibilities. The pastoral care must continue to meet the standards required under the RSE scheme (as confirmed by the Labour Inspectorate).

    In order to be granted visas (at no cost to the worker or employer), the RSE employer will need to get any employment approved by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to ensure any work does not displace New Zealanders, undertake to continue honour RSE commitments to workers, and work collaboratively with all parties to repatriate workers as early as possible.

    Changes to ensure workers and employers are not disadvantaged by COVID-19 disruptions:

    • A time-limited policy change to remove the stand down period. This change specifies that the period a RSE worker is stranded in New Zealand due to COVID-19 disruption will not be taken into account when calculating the earliest date they can be granted a visa for the upcoming season. Whether the worker will be able to enter New Zealand will depend on border restrictions at the time.

    All of these changes are time-bound and the focus remains to repatriate workers as soon as possible. The Pacific Migration team, including the RSE Relationship Managers- Tony and Oiko, will be supporting RSE employers to understand these changes and utilise the opportunities this flexibility provides.

    RSE cap decision and return of workers to New Zealand

    COVID-19 has added significant uncertainty to New Zealand industry’s workforce planning for 20/21, as well as uncertainty for Pacific workers and your labour sending units. The impact of border restrictions and New Zealand’s changing labour market has exacerbated the challenge of predicting New Zealand’s labour needs for the coming season.

    To provide as much certainty as possible, the Minister has announced today that the RSE cap (maximum number of RSE workers allowed to come to New Zealand in a 12 month period) will be held at the same level, 14,400 workers, for the next season. This decision does not change the fact that the New Zealand border currently remains closed to all migrants that are not New Zealand citizens, residents or those who meet the limited exception requirements. Currently, RSE workers Arrival of any new RSE workers for the 2020/21 season will not occur unless there are changes to the current border restrictions.

    You can find more information on the Immigration New Zealand website: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19/recognised-seasonal-employers-rse-covid-19-information

  • New Official Gazette

    New Official Gazette

    The Department of Labour and Employment Services wishes to proceed to a sound, effective, efficient and transparent consultation with the member of the public across Vanuatu on the proposed changes it wishes to introduce through the legal notice published in the official gazette dated 24th June 2020 which provides the proposed changes on the list of reserved occupations notice n°67 of 2020 signed by the Hon. Alatoi Ishmael KALSAKAU, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs. We invite all members of the public including Private Stakeholders, Government Stakeholders, NGO’s and the members of Tripartite Body to provide their observations, critics and constructive comments on which position they think it should be added in the new reserved occupations list. This consultation exercise will be carried out for a period of 6 months effective from 24th June 2020, the date it is gazetted. All your comments can be directed to the following link: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. We thank you in advance for your collaboration and partnership in undertaking this consultation exercise.

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  • First phase of repatriation complete

    First phase of repatriation complete

    Flights bringing in seasonal workers from New Zealand and stranded citizens and residents from Australia today are expected to be the final repatriation flights for the first phase.

    There will be no repatriation flights until after July, Director of Foreign Affairs, Yvon Basil said.

    A total of 1, 049 workers for the Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) Scheme in NZ are expected to be repatriated on the eight additional flights being operated by the Royal NZ Air Force since last Friday, said Director Basil. The last RSE repatriation flight is confirmed for today with the second flight from Australia bringing stranded citizens and residents.

    The first flight from Australia was expected yesterday. Around 200 individuals will return on these two flights operated by Nauru Airlines.

    The cost of the RSE repatriation flights are funded by the New Zealand Government, according to the Director of Public Health and Spokesperson for COVID-19 matters, Len Tarivonda.

    “The government of New Caledonia (NC) will also assist with the cost of the repatriation flight expected from NC yesterday,” he added.

    “Organizers of the chartered flight that brought back over 100 cruise ship workers are also meeting the cost the flight.

    “These cruise ship workers will be released from quarantine today. The repatriates from Fiji will be released at the end of this week.”

    All repatriates will undergo 14-days quarantine once they arrive in Port Vila.

  • Phase 1 Repatriation

    Phase 1 Repatriation

    A final New Zealand Defence Force flight will touch down in Port Vila late this morning carrying the last group of ni-Vanuatu RSE workers to be repatriated as part of the current effort.

    The Governments of New Zealand and Vanuatu have worked with employers in New Zealand to bring home more than 1000 RSE workers over the last five days.

    Preventing the spread of COVID to Vanuatu remains a key priority for both our Governments, and we are all working to ensure Vanuatu’s entry requirements are met. All workers underwent a health pre-screening before boarding their flight.

    Welcome home!

    Below is a photo of Ni Vanuatu boarding the NZDF Boeing this morning and another showing the Boeing taking off bound for Vanuatu.

  • PACIFIC LABOUR MOBILITY

    PACIFIC LABOUR MOBILITY

    An Australian Government initiative that connects workers with rural and regional Australian businesses and supports the economic prosperity of nine Pacific islands and Timor-Leste.

    Coronavirus: Health and travel advice

    Coronavirus, or COVID-19, is a respiratory illness caused by a new virus. To protect yourself against infection, you should wash your hands regularly, cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, and avoid close contact with others.

    People who have coronavirus may have a fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue or shortness of breath. If you think you have the virus, first call your doctor or a medical clinic.

    For the latest government health advice, please visit the Department of Health coronavirus web page, or for the latest travel advice, visit the Smartraveller website.

    WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?

    For more information, advice and resources about COVID-19 for Pacific labour mobility employers and workers, please visit our Pacific labour mobility coronavirus page.

    Visit Pacific Labour Mobility Facebook Page at Pacific labour mobility

    Read more

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    Message from the commissioner

    • It's licensing time!
    • On behalf of the Vanuatu Government we would like to thank all active agents and approved employers who have recruited Ni-Vanuatu citizens to undertake seasonal work in Australia and New Zealand.
    • It's now December and time for agents and prospective agents to apply for licences to recruit under the two labour mobility programmes, namely the Recognized Seasonal Employers (RSE) in New Zealand and the Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) in Australia. An information package for new and renewing agents outlining the expectations of agents is also attached.
    • This year we are also requiring direct recruiters (approved employers from Australia and New Zealand) to formally register for a Permit  to recruit seasonal workers.
    • Other changes include the following:
    • - there is a new application form
    • - the declarations have been strengthened primarily to ensure that all applicants are very aware that neither they nor any sub-agents (consultants, team leaders etc) may charge workers for the opportunity to work overseas on seasonal programs.
    • - all recruiters - agents and permit-holders must sign a Code of Conduct and ensure that workers have signed a Workers' Code of Conduct before leaving Vanuatu (we also have an English version available)
    • - we have included information about the Department of Labour's disciplinary policy.
    • I would like all applicants to carefully consider whether they meet the Vanuatu government's requirements of agents before applying for a licence. 
    • Agent applications must be complete and received by the Department of Labour by 31 December 2019. Late and incomplete applications will not be accepted and considered.
    • Permit holders may also be required to reapply by 16 December but will be transitioned over 2020 to a regular December deadline.

     

    • Murielle Metsan Meltenoven
    • Commissioner of Labour

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