An Australian Employer, the Costa Group is currently conducting screening and interviews for Solomon Islands workers under the Labour Mobility Work Ready Pool to pick berries in Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
The team from the Costa Group paid a courtesy call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade on Tuesday (26th September 2023) before commencing three days of interviews that will end on Thursday (28th September 2023) in Honiara.
Costa will be selecting 120 Solomon Islanders to work on its farms in Australia. They are selecting their workers from a total of 210 candidates from the work ready pool this week. 75 percent of the 120 workers will be women.
The Costa group currently have 60 Solomon Islanders already working with them in Australia.
The meeting with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade on Tuesday touched on curbing issues arising from alcohol and betel-nut consumption.
The Solomon Islands Government acknowledged Costa company for recruiting Solomon Islanders to work in their farms in Australia.
It acknowledged that more Australian Approved Employers are seeking workers from the Solomon Islands due to the good work and reputation displayed by local workers already in Australia. The government would like to thank Solomon Islanders under the PALM scheme for being good ambassadors of the country in Australia.
– MFAET
