Managing tala and tradition

This summer, the Poutasi Development Trust will source and send nearly 300 workers to New Zealand under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, with most to Hawke’s Bay orchards. It will send even more to Australia under that nation’s seasonal migration programme. The RSE scheme began 15 years ago, and the trust has been the biggest private recruiter of Samoan workers. Trust founder and Chair Tuatagaloa Joe Annandale says workers initially came from his home village, but now they’re selected from all over Samoa. In 2007, about 5,000 RSE workers from nine Pacific countries came to New Zealand, and the cap is currently 16,000.

We meet at Poutasi’s Memorial Hall, built on the site of a former school demolished in the 2009 tsunami, which hit the village particularly hard and which RSE funds have helped rebuild. Some 200 villagers are vigorously practising their cultural performance for Samoa’s 60th anniversary of independence. They arrive in dozens of late model Japanese import vehicles. “We call them the RSE cars,” says Tuatagaloa. The performers do a Samoan version of Pokarekare Ana which includes the lines in English: “I love New Zealand. I love Australia.”

Tuatagaloa says the trust inspects to see what’s been done with the money earned. If there’s no new family fale, fishing boat, car, beef cattle or investment in education, then workers stay home. He once suggested to a viticulture conference in Blenheim that workers be limited to three visits; this was strongly resisted by orchardists and grape growers who wanted experienced workers returning.

There’s no shortage of initial recruits in Samoa. Several thousand students finish school each year in an economy with few paying jobs. Tourism – second only to RSE and other remittances in Samoa’s economy – is only just starting to recover.

Last year’s change of Samoan government has seen it initiate its own review of the RSE scheme. What began as a way to get the unemployed into work now also recruits police officers, teachers and other public servants.

Other Pacific nations share concerns about losing skills. With its tourism industry rebuilding, Fiji is struggling to retain hospitality workers, particularly after Australia widened its Pacific mobility scheme to include hospitality and aged care staff. New Zealand is now recruiting 12,000 more Pacific workers for our seafood and meat industries, beyond RSE.

Tuatagaloa, who co-founded Samoa’s prestigious Sinalei Reef Resort and Spa, is losing cooks, kitchenhands, and even his electrician and plumber. He’s agreed to them all going; they are earning between NZ$1.80-$3.60 an hour in Samoa when New Zealand’s minimum wage is $21.20. One RSE visit means his staff can come back to build a house or buy a car. “How can you say no?”

One requirement of his departing staff is a commitment to return to the job after their time away. As well as generally higher wages, Australia now offers three-year contracts concluding with potential residency. The resort has lost two key staff permanently and Tuatagaloa favours New Zealand’s scheme and its six-month terms. “Our people must come back home.”

The trust works with three companies: Johnny Appleseed and Mr Apple based in Hawkes Bay, and JR Orchards in Wairarapa. Most work is in apple orchards, extending to grape pruning and kiwifruit.

“They look after our people very well.”

He’s aware of the reports of rogue contractors and says there can be issues with the standard of accommodation for some Samoan workers recruited by New Zealand contractors. “But you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. They are so grateful for what they are able to earn under the programme.”

He is much more concerned with the welfare of the trust’s workers who go to Australia, with huge numbers sought to work in often remote locations, including under its version of RSE. “That’s where the real challenges are. They don’t run it as well as the New Zealanders.”

Like much Pacific-sourced labour, the trust applies strict rules for its workers while here or in Australia. No alcohol, kava, or nights away from supplied accommodation. Tuatagaloa accepts this creates a clash of cultures when these can be viewed as basic human rights but says RSE workers are removed for months at a time from the disciplines of their own traditions. “Here we have a culture that maintains law and order in the village.

Auseuga Uti Lagavale will make just one more visit to New Zealand

Matai (chiefs) like Tuatagaloa have much mana and say the churches remain very strong, and that most Samoans don’t have much money to indulge themselves. “Then from nothing, you put 1,000 tala ($NZ598) a week in their hands. If you put temptation in their way, they’ll fall for it.”

Tuatagaloa often has to resolve issues when a worker from the trust falls foul of the rules. Resident Samoan families are a mixed blessing, with cultural support to RSE workers sometimes offset by offered temptations that breach the requirements signed by every recruit. “I tell my people, be patient. It is only six months. Think of the benefits.”

Auseuga Uti Lagavale has worked in New Zealand under RSE every year since 2013, mostly in Hawke’s Bay apple orchards. Usually, it’s a six-month stint but Auseuga returned home to Poutasi in June after 18 months away, helping meet New Zealand’s critical labour shortage as RSE and backpacker numbers dwindled.

He will now do one more season, at most, as he says being away can create stresses in families. “Sometimes my wife calls asking me to discipline one of the children.” That’s hard at the best of times but imagine doing this over a video or phone link. “It’s very hard for some of our men to be away from their families for six months,” he says, let alone his year and a half.

The reason he has stuck it out so long is stark. As a trained primary school teacher, he was earning NZ$4,200 a year. In a normal RSE season he can bring home about NZ$20,000 as well as sending money home every fortnight. As a supervisor of 100 men, he earns $4 an hour above the base rate of $22 an hour.

Auseuga’s family now has two cars and has completely rebuilt their basic fale. He’s also opening a new takeaway food business built with his RSE savings.

In New Zealand, his men mostly stay in purpose-built accommodation in Hastings with two men to a room. “It’s really warm and there’s a big space for sports. It’s like living in a village.” They pay $130 a week for their rooms, including power, wi-fi, linen and cleaning.

Auseuga’s workers come from all over Samoa and include carpenters and mechanics, but are mostly young men who have left their families’ taro plantations. He says there’s always some who misbehave and need to be disciplined which can extend to being sent home.

He draws on his teaching background and his role as conductor of Poutasi’s cultural group to remind them of where they come from – and where they will soon return.