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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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

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.

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.

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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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