Fijians working in the Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) in Australia and Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) program in New Zealand had a lower percentage of grievances, states a new report by the International Labour Organization.

The report titled “Seasonal worker schemes in the Pacific through the lens of international human rights and labour standards”, said the data for the study was collected through individual face-to-face interviews with seasonal workers in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa and Vanuatu.

“Workers from Vanuatu were most likely to have a grievance (47 per cent), compared to only 20 per cent of workers from Fiji,” the report said.

“The majority of workers were aware of the formal grievance/complaints procedure at their workplace.

“All respondents said that they understood how their pay was calculated, except for three workers in New Zealand.

“All workers were aware that they paid tax in Australia/New Zealand, and most workers in Australia were aware that their employers paid superannuation contributions on top of their wages.

“A major grievance of respondents was that the deductions from their wages were too high.”