Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme contributes to the economic development of Solomon Islands, and other participating countries, through the provision of work opportunities in the Australian agriculture and accommodation sectors. By offering reliable and hard-working seasonal labour to employers in these industries, it helps those employers who can’t meet their seasonal labour needs with local jobseekers.

In the agricultural industry, seasonal workers under SWP can undertake pastoral work, horticultural work, cane work, cotton work and aquaculture work. In addition, workers can undertake work in the accommodation industry and tourism industry.

The process of recruitment of workers under the SWP is done through the established work ready pool in the LMU. With this process, an Australian Approved Employer (AAE) wishing to recruit from Solomon Islands must contact the LMU and engage its services to carry out the recruitment of their workers on their behalf, should they require.

There is no cost for the services provided by the officials of the LMU and to be included in the Work Ready Pool, the LMU issues application forms to the public so interested potential seasonal workers can apply. All applications are entered into the database and, upon request, a worker can be selected by the employer.

More information on the selection criteria for the schemes can be found on the Labour Mobility Unit page.