Australia's Subclass 457 Visa
Australia's Subclass 457 Visa
Date: Friday, July 21, 2006 12:31 AM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1523 -- 07/20/2006 >>>>>
This is my chance to dispell one more urban myth. READ ON, MATES!
Occasionally I get emails from disillusioned American workers that say they
want to move to Australia because it's an English speaking country that
wouldn't sell out their middle class. Before any of you pack your bags you
better read this.
The United States isn't the only country that is giving its high-tech jobs
to imported foreign workers. Australia does the same thing. Their
equivalent to the H visa program is called "subclass 457". This visa allows
all sorts of workers to take jobs in Australia, including programmers,
engineers, truck drivers, welders, and anyone one else that has a skill and
a willingness to endure low salaries and exploitation.
So did Bush learn this line from the Aussies, or did the Aussies copy it
from Bush?
Businesses and the Federal Government are big supporters of
temporary skilled migration because it eases chronic skill
shortages and fills jobs that
Australians are reluctant to do.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This was just too good to pass up! Can you imagine Orrin Hatch saying such
a thing? Hillary Clinton perhaps?
Senator Vanstone is a big backer of skilled migration. She
described a recent skills expo in India as a "match-making
exercise that would have made online dating agencies envious".
Subclass 457 workers, like their H-1B equivalent, hope to get permanent
residency after a period of indentured servitude. Many of them never make
it though because like the H-1B, their visa is owned by the boss-man:
Most attractive, though, was the promise of permanent
residency.
Without a job, his visa was cancelled late last month and the
Department of Immigration is about to deport him.
Australia even has their version of the "nation of immigrants" clichi:
"Australia is a migrant country," he said. "We invite people
to come to Australia who have skills, and to become
Australians."
Once I started researching Subclass 457 I found all sorts of eerie
similarities to the U.S. Truck drivers in Australia are facing the same
kind of labor arbitrage that U.S. truckers are being forced into:
The (ATA) has put the proposal to the Immigration Department
for consideration and its chief Stuart St Clair said 100 foreign
truck drivers would be brought in under the scheme.
Subclass 457, like H-1B and L-1 visas, have a provision for allowing
spouses to come along for the ride. If you think Political Correctness (PC)
is bad in the USA, just get a load of this:
The partners of foreign workers on temporary visas will be able to
come to Australia in a policy change designed to entice skilled
workers.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said changes to "457" visas
to cater for interdependent partners would now take effect.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Articles used for this newsletter
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19699660-2702,00.html
158 foreign workers land a day
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/labour-hire-firms-use-visa-loophole-to-lure-staff/2006/07/14/1152637871166.html
Labour hire firms use visa loophole to lure staff
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Foreign-truckies-to-be-exploited-union/2006/07/13/1152637770840.html
Foreign truckies to be exploited: union
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/welder-says-work-scheme-is-a-scam/2006/07/14/1152637871169.html
Welder says work scheme is a scam
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Visa-changes-now-take-effect/2006/07/01/1151174408986.html
Visa changes now take effect
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19699660-2702,00.html
158 foreign workers land a day
Cath Hart and Imre Salusinszky
06jul06
FOREIGN workers are arriving in Australia at a rate of about 158 a day.
The flood of more than 58,000 workers holding temporary skilled work visas
in the year to April comes despite union opposition to skilled migration as
a solution to the nation's skills crisis.
According to Immigration Department figures, more than 23,000 workers came
to NSW in the year to April, while 11,976 came to Victoria and 8139 to
Queensland.
The resources and mining boom saw Western Australia take 13 per cent of the
total intake - about 7732 workers.
In February, the states endorsed an agreement to streamline regulations
covering foreign workers brought in to meet specific short-term skill
shortages.
But the states are now baulking at any further reference to the
co-operation at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting on
Friday week, fearing that their support contradicts federal Labor leader
Kim Beazley's campaign against skilled migration.
The Opposition Leader has led federal Labor's campaign against increased
skilled migration, claiming it drives wages down and reduces incentives to
train Australians.
The Australian understands that, at a premiers' meeting on the eve of the
previous COAG summit in March, NSW Premier Morris Iemma attempted to put
the brakes on a move for off-shore accreditation of foreign skilled
workers.
This did not meet with support from the other premiers and Mr Iemma has
since taken up the issue with John Howard.
With the issue still unresolved, the NSW Labor Government has not decided
if it will endorse the accord on skilled foreign workers.
Mr Beazley yesterday recast his opposition to skilled migration as a
campaign against foreign apprentices, rather than foreign workers, in an
effort to defend himself against claims of party disunity ahead of the
meeting.
"I've always been for migration, what I'm not for is bringing in unskilled
workers and replacing Australians in their jobs," Mr Beazley said.
"The workers being bought in to do apprenticeships in this country are
taking apprenticeships away from Australian kids."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/labour-hire-firms-use-visa-loophole-to-lure-staff/2006/07/14/1152637871166.html
Labour hire firms use visa loophole to lure staff
July 15, 2006
Advertisement
AdvertisementOVERSEAS workers are paying thousands of dollars to come to
Australia as temporary skilled migrants, some lured by promises of
permanent residency.
The push by businesses to import skilled labour to Australia is creating a
booming industry of middlemen who will exploit vulnerable workers for
profit.
An investigation by The Age has found that some labour hire firms and
recruitment agencies charge skilled foreign workers up to $15,000 to bring
them here under subclass 457 visas. If workers complain, they are
threatened with deportation.
Australian law appears to be inadequate: the Immigration Department's only
redress is to cancel sponsorship and bar future sponsorships. It has no
power against offshore agents.
Businesses and the Federal Government are big supporters of temporary
skilled migration because it eases chronic skill shortages and fills jobs
that Australians are reluctant to do. The use of the 457 visa is booming:
about 70,000 will be issued this year, up from 49,855 last year.
Employers are applying pressure to the Government to relax restrictions
further to bring in semi-skilled or unskilled workers.
But Noelene Merrey, the owner of West Australian recruiting company
Immigration Solutions Australia, said "about 10 per cent" of her fellow
companies were doing the wrong thing, mostly at the "blue collar" end of
the market.
"It's not a big percentage, but because you are dealing with human beings,
with compelling stories and financial hardship, it's quite a concern," she
said.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has proposed a "flying squad" to move
more quickly to investigate complaints. The department said it checked a
quarter of business sponsors every 12 to 18 months.
But a former commercial migration lawyer, who did not want to be named,
said the Department of Immigration fell over backwards to do the bidding of
businesses when it came to 457 visas.
"When employers wanted to cancel a migrant's sponsorship, the most lame
excuse would get them over the line," the lawyer said. "The stories are
astounding. When you were processing them, sometimes you'd get an approval
before you even provided the department with any documents!
"In every other setting, DIMA is obstructive. In this setting we see
incompetence, but facilitative incompetence."
One Perth labour hire firm, KSN Engineering, has brought 60 Korean welders
to Australia after demanding payment of $8000 each, on the promise that the
employer could arrange permanent residency.
The workers paid their own way to Australia and all their own settlement
costs (which the employer is supposed to pay).
They found themselves working up to 60 hours a week for a flat rate of $22
an hour after their employer creamed $4.10 an hour off their wages. Other
skilled welders in Western Australia earn at least $30 an hour, plus
overtime.
In another case, a Queensland-based former police officer turned recruiter,
Terry Sweeney, has proposed charging Thai workers $10,000 to get jobs in
Australia.
Mr Sweeney, whom The Age could not contact, recruited dozens of Ukrainian
meatworkers to Teys Brothers abattoirs. The company has employed hundreds
of workers on 457 visas, and became controversial after it locked out 20
unionised employees who refused to sign Australian Workplace Agreements.
In another case, a labour hire firm called World Workers has provided
Chinese meatworkers for Midfield Meats, a Warrnambool abattoir. A model
contract, obtained by The Age, demands 8 per cent of the gross salary of
each worker as a "professional service fee".
World Workers also promises other services to the company, including
"locating and detaining a sponsored person (and) removing a sponsored
person from Australia". World Workers director Anh Oan declined to speak to
The Age.
But the company's website promises "Adelaide's most willing workers --
fast. Seven days a week. We can even deliver workers direct to your door,
via our own shuttle bus!"
The Age believes that World Workers is one of several labour hire firms
that have paid Warrnambool TAFE to assess the skills of Chinese people in
an express, three-week program in China.
TAFE spokeswoman Julie Kean said it had trained and assessed about 650
workers so far for an array of clients.
"We've found that we are engaged by one agent, then we are talking to
someone else, and someone else and someone else, and it's hard to find
where they are linked," Ms Kean said.
In Melbourne, a new kiln for Austral Bricks is being built by French
company Ceric, which has used workers from the Czech Republic employed by
another company, Fornax. The workers' pay is sent straight to accounts in
the Czech Republic.
Under immigration guidelines, offshore companies acting as sponsors must
pass on technology or skills to the Australian workforce.
But construction union secretary Martin Kingham said no skills were being
passed on. In fact, there were guards at the building site to keep him and
Australian workers out.
A Ceric spokesman, Peter Rodriguez, said that it was not practical to train
somebody on the job in the three to five months it would take to finish.
"The immigration office has met with me, and I'm clear," he said.
Senator Vanstone is a big backer of skilled migration. She described a
recent skills expo in India as a "match-making exercise that would have
made online dating agencies envious".
Yet, while the Government is pushing skilled temporary migration, Treasurer
Peter Costello was recently emphatic that unskilled guest-work, where
people were "rounded up after a period of time and expelled" was
undesirable.
"Australia is a migrant country," he said. "We invite people to come to
Australia who have skills, and to become Australians."
Labor and the unions complain that the current skilled migration regime
drives down wages and displaces Australians from jobs. The minimum wage
under the 457 visa is $41,850, or the award wage, whichever is higher.
But, in many cases, the market rate for pay has outstripped the award. In
the WA welding industry, the award rate is around $15 an hour. By combining
cheaper migrants with AWAs under the WorkChoices law, employers can hold
down wages.
Guests: a growing trend
&Number of temporary skilled migration visas issued:
2002-03: 37,859
2003-04: 40,124
2004-05: 49,855
2005-06: (DIMA estimates) 70,000
&The top six source countries for temporary skilled migrants in 2004-05
were: Britain, India, United States, Japan, South Africa, China.
&Their minimum pay in metropolitan areas was $41,850; in regional areas
(including Adelaide) it was $37,665.
&Regional groups, including councils, or chambers of commerce approve
companies as sponsors of visa holders in regional areas.
&Sponsors must give evidence that they are a genuine company, not a shelf
company, and that they provide, or intend to provide, training.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Foreign-truckies-to-be-exploited-union/2006/07/13/1152637770840.html
Foreign truckies to be exploited: union
Email Print Normal font Large font July 13, 2006 - 6:59AM
Advertisement
AdvertisementForeign truckies granted semi-skilled visa status to drive on
Australian roads will be subjected to poor wages and a lack of training,
the Transport Workers Union (TWU) says.
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has called for semi-skilled
workers to be considered for work visas under a pilot scheme instead of
skilled workers only.
The (ATA) has put the proposal to the Immigration Department for
consideration and its chief Stuart St Clair said 100 foreign truck drivers
would be brought in under the scheme.
The union has already denounced it as deluded and exploitative.
"We are extremely concerned overseas employees will be exploited by
transport companies that do not provide fair pay rates or adequate driver
training to work on Australian roads," union boss Tony Sheldon said.
"Instead of investing in our nation's skills, the ATA is auctioning off
Australian jobs overseas in the deluded hope it will fix the chronic labour
shortage problem in the transport industry."
Mr St Clair, a former National Party MP, refused to say how many drivers
would be brought in if the scheme became permanent.
"One hundred extra drivers from overseas will definitely not fix industry
problems and if adequate driver training is not executed this plan could
endanger the lives of every person that uses Australian roads," Mr Sheldon
said.
Australia's road freight task is predicted to double by 2020 while the
average age of a truck driver is now about 50.
Mr St Clair said there was little option for Australia but to import
foreign workers.
"There are 180,000 people in the trucking industry and we're going to need
more people (so) let's have a look at bringing in this temporary
agreement," he said.
"We were not prepared as an industry to sit back and do nothing. We are
going to have to compete for labour globally."
Labor has also slammed the plan.
Opposition transport spokesman Kerry O'Brien said the plan proved the
government had failed to provide skills training to enough Australians.
"Despite warnings from the Labor Party and industry the Howard government
has failed to act to arrest what has now become a skills crisis," Senator
O'Brien said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/welder-says-work-scheme-is-a-scam/2006/07/14/1152637871169.html
Welder says work scheme is a scam
Email Print Normal font Large font Michael Bachelard
July 15, 2006
South Korean welder Kim Min Kuk ponders his future after being sacked by a
labour hire company.
Photo: Tony Ashby
Advertisement
AdvertisementKIM Min Kuk cites familiar reasons for his desire to migrate
to Australia. "Lifestyle, good country, relaxing," the skilled welder
explains.
But Mr Kim came here as a skilled guest worker under a subclass 457
temporary business visa. He claims that his employer, Kyung Sam Na, who
runs a labour hire firm called KSN Engineering, misled, underpaid and then
sacked him.
Without a job, his visa was cancelled late last month and the Department of
Immigration is about to deport him.
Mr Na still employs dozens of other Koreans to work in West Australian
engineering companies, but others have been retrenched. Many are
desperately unhappy but afraid to speak up.
When Sam Na interviewed these workers in their home country last September,
he tested their skills, hired them and promised to pay up $100,000 in
wages, to work for between one and four years. Most attractive, though, was
the promise of permanent residency.
Mr Kim and many others agreed to pay $8000 for a job. Some uprooted their
families to come here. The migrants say they paid their own air fares
(illegal under DIMA's guidelines), their visas, health checks, paperwork
and translation.
On arrival last November, they were taken to a house in South Perth, which
is owned by Mr Na. They paid $10 each per night to sleep on the floor.
Mr Kim says Mr Na also asked for a $50,000 "bond" from each worker. He
promised to repay the money after four years. In return he would arrange
permanent residency, he said. Most workers refused to pay.
Mr Kim went to work at building company Western Construction. KSN paid his
wages of $26.10 per hour gross. But those who could not pay their $8000
service fee in advance, had $3 an hour deducted from their wages. Another
30 cents an hour was taken for holiday pay and 80 cents for medical
insurance.
That left $22 an hour gross. Mr Kim was paid no overtime. A DIMA
investigation showed Mr Kim's gross weekly wage complied with the award
minimum of about $15 an hour plus penalties. But the going rate for WA
welders is about $30 plus penalties. At $22 an hour, Mr Kim would have
needed to work 88 hours a week to earn $100,000.
Meanwhile, Mr Na was charging Western Construction up to $42 an hour for
the men's services. When a supervisor discovered what his workers were
being paid, he rang Mr Na and a shouting match followed. Western
Construction responded by terminating the KSN contract.
A Western Construction spokesman said the company had no problem with the
migrants' abilities, only that the men were being paid too little. They had
believed Mr Kim was earning $28 to $36 an hour.
But Mr Na told Mr Kim that Western Construction had sacked him "because he
had asked -- about his wage".
On February 15, he sacked Mr Kim, saying, "I don't like you." But DIMA was
told: "Advice from this employer (Mr Na) -- indicated that Mr Kim was
terminated as he lacked welding skills".
Mr Na refused to speak to The Age. Through his lawyer, he said KSN
employees were now paid $28.10 an hour, and some up to $40. Some employees
had earned more than $100,000 in the past year. He said the deductions were
made only with the written authorisation of employees, and were paid to
"third parties who are not in any way related to Mr Na or KSN Engineering".
Mr Na denied ever demanding a $50,000 bond, and said he ran a welding
school to fulfil his training requirements.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Visa-changes-now-take-effect/2006/07/01/1151174408986.html
Visa changes now take effect
The partners of foreign workers on temporary visas will be able to come to
Australia in a policy change designed to entice skilled workers.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said changes to "457" visas to cater
for interdependent partners would now take effect.
"Australia was missing out on highly skilled temporary entrants, such as
doctors and other health professionals, because we did not have an
interdependent category," she said in a statement.
"To ensure Australia, and in particular regional Australia, did not miss
out on much-needed services, the interdependent provision was created."
Previously, only Australian citizens and permanent residents could sponsor
interdependent partners into Australia.
"While interdependent partners could enter Australia in their own right,
often as visitors, the fact that couples were not treated together in the
same application created some uncertainty for them and a potential loss for
Australia of highly skilled people," Senator Vanstone said.
Among other immigration changes to take effect is the introduction of the
two stage Skilled Designated Area Sponsored Visa, designed to encourage
skilled migrants to live in their designated regional areas for longer.
"Applicants will first be given a three year provisional visa," Senator
Vanstone said.
"After living in a designated area for two years and working for 12 months,
they will be able to apply for permanent residency."
Meanwhile, foreign backpackers working in primary industries will be able
to work for their employer for six months, instead of three.
Backpackers employed in sectors such as fishing, pearling, shearing,
butchery and forestry will also be able to apply for a 12 month extension
to their stay in Australia.
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