BY TONY IROGA,
With contribution from Duran Angiki in Perth, Western Australia
The Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Australia has expressed gratitude to Regional Workforce Management (RWM), Australia, for the recruitment of Solomon Islanders, now employed by host companies in Western Australia.
Speaking at a face-to-face fact finding tour of RWM host, V&V Walsh, in Bunbury, Western Australia, last week, His Excellency, Robert Sisilo, thanked the employees and RWM for their respective roles.
“I’d like to thank RWM for employing you to come over and work here in Australia,” His Exellency, Robert Sisilo said.
“The PALM scheme is very important to us. It is a great thing for our country,” Mr Sisilo added.
He said he was hopeful that following a number of sideline meetings with regional councils and other business sectors in Albany, employment opportunities in the mining and age care sectors would soon open up for Solomon Islanders.
Sisilo reiterated a common theme that he has been telling workers, AE (Approved Employers) and host companies during this tour about his excitement over hearing positive feedback from employees and what they’ve achieved back home.
Many employees had told him positive stories of what they’ve done, built and established back in the Solomon Islands for themselves and their families over the past 2-4 years. “Some of them had built one or two houses,” he said.
Sisilo expressed hope of more companies in WA, like RWM, would hire more workers from the Solomon Islands under the PALM scheme.
Earlier last week, on Tuesday, May 26 and Wednesday, May 27 at three separate meetings with PALM employees, Sisilo expressed gratitude for the workers and urged companies to employ more Solomon Islanders.
As a nation, the government has committed to exploring new opportunities with Australian companies to employ more Solomon Islanders under the PALM scheme.
In elaborating on His Excellency’s statement, the Director of the Solomon Islands Government Labour Mobility Unit (LMU), Christina Marau, said over 4,000 employeeswere in a pool, ready to work, while 15,000 applicants were still waiting to be processed.
Mrs Marau assured companies, which are still unsure of hiring workers from the Solomon Islands that there is a large pool of potential staff, waiting and hoping to come over and work under the PALM scheme. The figure included returning workers with four years’ work experiences in the Australian meat and other industries.
She said returning employees are required to call in person at the LMU office and register their details in a registry. The information would enable LMU to contact them when there was interest from new or former employers and AE after the stand-down.
The last of the five pre-arranged meetings with the visiting Solomon Islands delegation finally completed last week, Thursday, May 28.
It was opened with a brief introductory welcome and prayer. It followed by a brief speech by His Excellency Sisilo, who thanked the workers for their commitment and good work ethnics that promoted a positive image of themselves and Solomon Islands.
Following his brief speech, Sisilo officiated the handing over of certificates in recognition of 23 Solomon Islanders, who had successfully completed their four years contract with RWM’s and host company, V&V Walsh.
The previous night, Sisilo also officiated in a similar brief ceremony handing over certificates to over 10 Solomon Islands workers, who were about to complete their contracts and ready to return home in a month time. They were working in a host company in Katanning, Western Australia.
In an earlier face-to-face meeting with Fletcher International management and later workers at Albany, Sisilo reminded workers, delegation from DEWR and a senior and site managers of RWM about the importance of the PALM scheme to the people and government of the Solomon Islands.
Out of the 60 Solomon Islands employees, who attended the meeting, 40 were employed under RWM and less than 20 were directly employed by Fletcher International.
Fletcher International Exports is located at Narrikup, Albany, WA. It is a large-scale sheep and lamb meat processing factory, which operates an integrated abattoir that also processes and exports by-products like wool and sheep skins to over 90 countries globally.
Sisilo said, as a government, we would like to remind workers that you were not only working and representing yourselves, but the country and other potential employees who are still waiting in the queue for their turn to come.
He revealed that during his recent meetings with business houses in WA, he made clear the government’s desire to explore opportunities, for our men and women, to be employed by mining and aged care companies.
The meeting was also attended by the Director of the Solomon Islands Government Labour Mobility Unit, Mrs Christina Marau, the two Solomon Islands Government PALM scheme Australian-based Country Liaison Officers (CLO) Lesley Fa’arodo, and Vera Cheffers, two representatives of the Australian Department of Employment Workplace Relations (DEWR), Monique Lobb, and Wayne Murry. And three members of RWM’s Pacific Islands’ Culture, Welfare and Wellbeing Team, Pa Enari, Mick Seduadua and Duran Angiki.
During the questions and answers session, questions were raised regarding the conditions of subclass 403 visa, issues relating to disengagement from the programme, and many other issues relating to the PALM scheme.
Both Monique Lobb and Christina Marau chipped in to help clarify some of the questions regarding the role and responsibilities of DEWR and the Solomon Islands’ LMU and the CLOs.
His Excellency Sisilo said there was a process of handling issues. He said when a worker has an issue, he/she needs to contact one of the two CLOs. If the matter was not resolved, contact a PALM scheme welfare officer. If it was not yet resolved, then contact the Solomon Islands High Commissioner’s office in Canberra. The process was a three steps process and the High Commissioner’s office was the last resort.
The facts finding face-to-face meetings were requested by the Solomon Islands government and organised and facilitated by RWM’s senior managers, with the help of the Culture, Welfare and Wellbeing Team, and Site Managers.
The Solomon Islands Government delegation was headed by the Solomon Islands High Commission to Australia, His Excellency Robert Sisilo, the Honiara-based Director of Labour Mobility Unit (LMU), Christina Marau, and the two Australian-based Solomons country liaison officers, Vera Cheffers and Lesley Fa’arodo.
Included in the tour party were two officials from the Australian Government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR): Monique Lobb and Wayne Murry, along with RWM organisers/facilitators in various host companies, and members of the RWM Pacific Islands Culture, Welfare and Wellbeing Team: Pa Enari (Samoa), Mick Seduadua (Fiji) and Duran Angiki (Solomon Islands).
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