Visa 457 Versus Training And Employing Older Technicians

Post GFC skills shortages are ‘painfully obviously’ an emerging problem says Nick Greiner speaking for the mining, construction and engineering industries.

“At all levels from semi-skilled upwards, the problem, certainly at Bradken [mining supplier] we are finding that it’s heading back to where it was prior to the GFC”.

People are starting to be ‘bid away’ attracted by fatter pay packages, a situation likely to lead to broader wage demands.

The Business Council of Australia president says the communications industry could face similar problems as the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout begins.

Would it help to expand the visa 457 that brings in overseas workers on a temporary basis?

Problems With Visa 457

In late 2009 changes were made to the system due to:

• Exploitation of overseas workers by unscrupulous employers
• The Minimum Salary Level creating a second industrial relations system that allowed some overseas workers to be paid less than Australians doing equivalent work and deprived them of other entitlements such as maternity leave
• A perception in some quarters that overseas workers were undermining Australian working conditions
• Employers not investing in training
• Sponsored workers bonded to Australian employers tolerating exploitation in the hope of gaining permanent residence in Australia
• Overseas workers not always being skilled

Some 2010 Views On Bringing In Skilled Workers

The following views were posted in December 2010:

“There are no skill shortages. I know lots of professional and qualified engineering students struggling to find job. Can some one define what is skill and what do they mean by shortage? The idea of importing labour is to reduce salary bills and line the pockets of employment agents.”

“The NBN will create jobs – another job creation and economic stimulus project – just like pink batts and home insulation rorts.”

“The NBN is going to overshoot the budget by 30-50% regardless of skills shortage or importing cheap skills. There are already enough skilled telecom technicians and engineers on the street looking for work but they are denied job on the pretext of age, under qualification or over qualification…I personally know a good network engineer who could not find a job for 18 months just because he is over 50 years old. In one event when I recommended him for a position, I was told point blank he is too old. It is the attitude of the industry not to recognize skill in the first place and second not to train locals to acquire skills. This can not go on.”

“How short sighted is the federal government, the NBN, the ICT industry, ACS, ComptIA and other professional organisations for not requiring people to be trained in this area now. Using the skilled migrant visa reduces the opportunity to create training places in TAFE and universities. The federal, state and territory governments and industry should sponsor students to become qualified in this field and well as all the other so called skill shortage areas.”

“I agree what ‘skill-shortage’, I have 22 years experience and struggle to find work because I do not wish to live in a capital city. Ironic considering the Internet is border less. The NBN / Cloud will force IT services to become even more centralised. It is even making access to health specialist centralised. This means those living outside of city areas will be paying taxes for services to grow in the cities and disappear from regional areas. Strange indeed.”

“Stop importing skills and start training. There is a large skilled population in Australia that is underemployed because they have missed out on training particularly the over 45s. Get them back into the workforce before you start importing skills.”

A lot of issues to be clarified here.