Two of Samoa’s largest retail and wholesale outlets have been hit hard by an exodus of local employees who’ve signed up for seasonal work and moved abroad.

Local companies Ah Liki and Frankie both confirmed when contacted by the Samoa Observer that they’ve lost employees to the seasonal work programme, which currently targets selected industries in Australia and New Zealand.

The Ah Liki Wholesale Business Development Manager, Clyve Westerlund said in an email response to this newspaper that the number of staff they’ve lost is “significant”.

"Around 25 per cent for wholesale itself,” Mr Westerlund said in an emailed response on Wednesday. "Which for any organisation is significant and there are probably other organisations that have had it even worse off than us.

"I would posit that the totality of the private sector has been affected due to the R.S.E scheme in a negative outcome for the local labour market. 

"Now it seems that the public sector is also being affected – that is not to say anything about the R.S.E. scheme itself, the analysis and evaluation of this is another matter entirely."

The Frankie General Manager, Niran Bala, expressed similar sentiments during a telephone interview with the Samoa Observer on Thursday.

He said they also lost a significant number of workers to the seasonal work programme, but the impact to the company has been minimal, as they were just “temporary staff” prior to their exit.

But on the flip-side there are benefits for the country, according to Mr Bala, as he said their former employees send money back to their families in Samoa in the form of remittance.

In August last year it was reported that applications from Samoans for the New Zealand-supported recognised seasonal employer (R.S.E.) scheme went over 10,000.

In January this year an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report revealed that seasonal workers deployed in New Zealand and Australia sent more than half of their total earnings at the end of their stay back home.

The report titled “Seasonal worker schemes in the Pacific through the lens of international human rights and labour standards” highlighted the economic and social impacts of both Australia's Seasonal Worker Programme (S.W.P.) and New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (R.S.E.) scheme for Pacific islanders.

According to the report, the main economic benefits for participants and their families were the earnings received by workers, part of which is sent home as remittances. 

The data collected through individual face-to-face interviews with seasonal workers in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa and Vanuatu showed that the temporary workers in New Zealand and Australia sent more than half of their total earnings back to their home countries. 

“They also remitted more money to their families while they worked overseas than what they spent themselves of their disposable income,” the report disclosed. “Workers left small amounts of money in Australia/New Zealand.”

A table provided in the report noted the average total earning after deductions (of AU$13,000) showed that the workers took home an average of close to $15,000 (AU$8,000) which does not include more than $7,000 they sent as remittance to families.