Seasonal Solutions managing director and Summerfruit New Zealand chairman Basil Goodman said minor changes were being made to the scheme to better suit those involved.
Mr Goodman hosted Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Winnie Laban and Minister for Building Shane Jones in Alexandra yesterday to show them how RSE was being implemented within Central Otago.
The ministers visited the Amisfield Wine Company, near Cromwell, before meeting Vanuatuan workers on-site at McArthur Ridge Vineyard, near Alexandra.
This year, 240 Vanuatuan workers were employed in Central Otago's viticulture and horticulture industries through the scheme.
About 70 went home on Saturday and Mr Goodman said the rest would continue working until July.
The ministers were impressed with the work being done by RSE employees but said there was room for improvement within the scheme to further streamline the recruitment and employment process.
‘‘Wine growers wanted to make sure we understood how important it was to get a rapid response from the Government when employers or investors need to vary the work-permit conditions. Mother Nature does not wait for us up in Wellington and [wine growers] told us we need to be more efficient,'' Mr Jones said.
‘‘It is the first year and employers have to bear with the bureaucracy... But it [RSE] has a bright future I have no doubt about that,'' he said.
After being launched in April last year, RSE received criticism from the seasonal employment sector in Central Otago, as wine growers and orchardists did not have enough time to recruit workers through the scheme before the frantic summer harvest.
Transitional arrangements within RSE were made early this year to make it easier for seasonal employers to hire foreigners, although it was too late for the Central Otago fruit industry, which suffered labour shortages through December and January.
