Cooking a case for foreign workers

    Natasha Bita
    The Australian
    March 21, 2014


AUSTRADE wants to relax strict rules on work visas so Australian hotels, pubs and restaurants can hire more foreign staff to ease a domestic skills drought.    

The federal government department responsible for tourism has backed industry demands to “increase the flexibility” of 457 work visas and backpacker visas — including a review of the English fluency requirement.

It warns that the hospitality sector faces a shortage of 56,000 workers next year, unless more foreign staff can be hired in regional areas.

Austrade has told the Productivity Commission that

employers also want to pay foreign workers “market rates” below the existing $53,900 minimum salary for 457 visa workers.      :(

“Providing more flexible arrangements to access overseas labour to address shortages will help to provide a stronger tourism workforce that will help the Australian tourism industry become more competitive, encourage greater investment, and support regional development,” Austrade has told the commission’s inquiry into labour mobility.

Backpackers make up 7 per cent of Australia’s tourism workforce, Austrade reveals in its submission. And 10 per cent of the 457 visas approved last financial year were for the accommodation and food sector, including 3040 foreign cooks, 1900 restaurant managers and 1090 chefs.

The owner of Il Baretto trattoria in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Gabriella Fedeli, sponsored Milanese chef Davide Albertoni to work on a 457 visa last year.

“It was extremely hard and extremely expensive, and you need a good solicitor to do the paperwork,” she said. “It is difficult to find people that are qualified.”

A spokesman for Assistant Minister for Immigration Michaelia Cash said yesterday employers could hire someone from overseas on a 457 visa only if they could prove they could not find an Australian to do the same job.   ;)      

She said the government “requires a level of ability in English language necessary for an applicant to perform effectively in their nominated occupation”.

Austrade has told the Productivity Commission that Australian tourism workers have been reluctant to relocate to regional areas due to insecure work, undesirable hours and housing shortages.

“International workers, on the other hand, offer greater flexibility for the tourism industry and are more likely to move to regions to source work,” it says

Domestic skills drought in pubs and restaurants.

bwahahahahaha!!!!!!!


I suppose we're a bit short on domestic cleaners too. Let the con continue.

In the crappy little town I used to live in until recently, they had to employ backpackers as bar staff, waitresses etc because they just couldn't find anybody else - despite the region having one of the highest unemployment rates in the county (Wide Bay, Qld).

The locals just didn't want to do the work - those who did were usually those just out of school and they soon found the lure of the city with its better employment opportunities too great to resist.

Life_goes_on wrote on Mar 21^st, 2014 at 6:12am:

In the crappy little town I used to live in until recently, they had to employ backpackers as bar staff, waitresses etc because they just couldn't find anybody else - despite the region having one of the highest unemployment rates in the county (Wide Bay, Qld). The locals just didn't want to do the work - those who did were usually those just out of school and they soon found the lure of the city with its better employment opportunities too great to resist.

That is a problem in all rural areas and is the reason rural voters elect old duffers like Truss. Kids walk off the family farm and head off to the big smoke.

Life_goes_on wrote on Mar 21^st, 2014 at 6:12am:

In the crappy little town I used to live in until recently, they had to employ backpackers as bar staff, waitresses etc because they just couldn't find anybody else - despite the region having one of the highest unemployment rates in the county (Wide Bay, Qld). The locals just didn't want to do the work - those who did were usually those just out of school and they soon found the lure of the city with its better employment opportunities too great to resist.

Just wondering, why did you call your town "crappy" and why did you leave it?

What I find odd is that this supposed skills shortly seems to have miraculously occurred in the last six months.

On the other hand, if it has been developing over time, then the hospitality industry only has itself to blame for the shortages by not providing quality training of staff.

Isn't it just a bit strange that overseas hospitality industry can provide Australia (via 457 visas) highly skilled and trained hospitality staff. I realise that requires complex range of skills of course and also clearly recognise that this is nothing to do with cutting wage costs to maximise profits - whilst pushing up unemployment figures in Australia of Australians.

It is dastardly when one considers this in the bigger picture too, where the unemployed are mercilessly lambasted for not having a job, yet, people driven industry, like hospitality would manipulate the facts in order to employ people from overseas, pay them less and be party to the demonising of welfare recipients.

This country really just gets better representation every day...

Quote:

The owner of Il Baretto trattoria in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Gabriella Fedeli, sponsored Milanese chef Davide Albertoni to work on a 457 visa last year. “It was extremely hard and extremely expensive, and you need a good solicitor to do the paperwork,” she said. “It is difficult to find people that are qualified.”

OP.

Wonder if the owner ever entertained the idea lf training someone up to the position??


Quote:

When Gabriella Fedeli founded the restaurant over 12 years ago,

Would have thought 12 years was plenty enough time to train someone......

:D