Labour shortage or lack of well-paid jobs?

On August 6, Victoria University of Technology (VUT) hosted a seminar, "Pacific Islands Migration and Labour Mobility: Issues and Responses", which discussed the potential for an unskilled guest worker scheme for Pacific Island workers. Some Pacific nations have called for such program to help alleviate high rates of unemployment.

Currently, a government committee is reviewing the highly exploitative 457 temporary working visa for skilled migrants. The committee will report its findings on October 1.

Speakers at the seminar included Hurriyet Babacan, VUT professor of social and cultural development, who gave an overview of globalisation, and Duncan Kerr, parliamentary secretary for Pacific Islands affairs, who asked how Australia, already experiencing a labour shortage, could help poor Pacific Islanders with excess labour.

Nic McLellan, from the Institute for Research at Swinburne University, gave an historical overview of trade and migration in the Pacific region.

Alison Tate, international officer of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, argued that any seasonal guest worker scheme would have to be"rights-based" to ensure Pacific workers were not being taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers, as has been the case under the 457 visa scheme. She pointed to the 2007 experience of New Zealand's Pacific Island guest worker pilot scheme, in which workers experienced high levels of exploitation and abuse.

Dr Fei' Iloakitau Kaho Tevi, from the Pacific Council of Churches based in Fiji, suggested that a well-structured scheme could provide Australian unions with an opportunity to educate Pacific Island workers about labour laws and workers' rights.

Cawley Hennings, from the National Farmers' Federation, and land owner Gaye Tripodi were in favour of a seasonal guest worker scheme, arguing that the agricultural sector was starved of labour due to the drought, remoteness of many jobs and a low perception of the work.

There was near-consensus from the speakers that, if properly managed and well regulated, a temporary unskilled guest worker scheme would help address Australia's labour shortage and provide economic support for struggling Pacific Island countries.

During question time, Tripodi rejected the notion that low wages and bad working conditions were factors contributing to the shortage of agricultural workers.

Neil Blake from the Australian Nurses Federation disagreed that there was a "cyclical or structural shortage" of workers in Australia. He told Green Left Weekly that in the nursing profession, which has the highest intake of 457 visa holders, there was not a shortage of nurses but rather a shortage of decent nursing jobs.

"The evidence shows that employers who offer attractive employment conditions, good career prospects and reasonable work environments attract and retain labour. Those that don't, can't. Today, there are 30,000 nurses registered who don't work as nurses but remain registered. Get half of these people back in the workforce and the shortage disappears", he said.

Blake also described the high rates of exploitation of nurses on 457 visas. He said that the major problem with 457 arrangements was that temporary migrants could only stay as long as the employer wanted them to, and that this is what leads to intimidation and exploitation.

PM Kevin Rudd is expected to announce the government's decision on whether or not to go ahead with a pilot guest worker scheme at the Pacific Heads of Government meeting in Niue on August 19.

From GLW issue 762