atw: Re: Use of 457 Visas in the IT Industry ...
- From: Peter Martin <prescribal@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 13:41:47 +1000
Tim:
>I'm wary of drawing attention to the 457 program without providing context
because of recent rhetoric >coming from the political class. Who seem to
ignore the presence of their own 457 staff while attempting to >stir up
some kind of populist nationalism in a desperate attempt to win votes.
For an interesting piece of context which you might well have missed,
see
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-fix-is-in-on-457-visas-20130319-2gc05.html
You might care to consider the context of legislation which doesn't seem to
impose much by way of restraints on those employers who desperately needed
to import 12000 staff for hairdressing and related services.
We're desperate for hairdressers, already?
Why? I must be missing something. What I see in the city are lots of
shaven heads and three-day growths.... ( and then, of course, there are
the men.... :-) )
Meanwhile, we know (because they've told us) that the hospitality and
retail trades have been closing down venues all over the place because
times are so crook. What we don't know (mind you, we can guess) is why we
need 300 retail store staff a month under 457 visas, or 45 cooks a month,
90 chefs a month and 134 cafe and restaurant managers a month.
Maybe the context gives us a bit of a pattern here... ? 457 applied
this way would suggest there loopholes to do with pay-rates rather than
skill shortages. I don't see that as "populist nationalism", and I'd
hope my local representative would think there might be grounds for
supporting the tightening of criteria somewhere there. Without that, the
IT industry is equally vulnerable to "the fix".
Hairdressing-led national productivity gains ? I think not.
On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Tim Hildred <thildred@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Sorry, Neil, where are you going with that?
>
> From the NYTimes article, I took away that the H1-B program is good for
> America, and is being advocated for by conservatives. But the American
> context is not the Austrlian context.
>
> In the Australian context, you can't pay someone less than $50 000 on a
> 457. That isn't exactly low-wage. It may not be Jay-z money, but it allows
> skilled people to take jobs that Australians aren't interested and live a
> decent lifestyle.
>
> I'm wary of drawing attention to the 457 program without providing context
> because of recent rhetoric coming from the political class. Who seem to
> ignore the presence of their own 457 staff while attempting to stir up some
> kind of populist nationalism in a desperate attempt to win votes.
>
> Tim Hildred, RHCE
> Content Author II - Engineering Content Services, Red Hat, Inc.
> Brisbane, Australia
> Email: thildred@xxxxxxxxxx
> Internal: 8588287
> Mobile: +61 4 666 25242
> IRC: thildred
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Neil Maloney" <maloneyn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 2:27:54 PM
> > Subject: atw: Use of 457 Visas in the IT Industry ...
> >
> > Someone on the list in the last few days (I am sure) mentioned that
> there are
> > a lot of dodgy workers in IT under the 457 scheme. Had a good look for
> that
> > mail, can't find it, the dog must have eaten it.
> >
> > I thought I'd post this link about what's happening in the US of A with
> their
> > H-1B scheme, from today's New York Times:
> >
> >
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/politics/tech-firms-take-lead-in-lobbying-on-immigration.html?hp&_r=0
> >
> >
> > From the article:
> >
> > Silicon Valley lobbyists told Senate negotiators they agreed that the
> H1-B
> > visa system had been subject to abuse. Go after the companies that take
> > advantage of guest worker visas and give us the benefit of the doubt,
> they
> > told the Senate staff members, according to interviews with several
> > lobbyists.
> >
> > “You know and we know there are some bad people in this system,” is how
> Scott
> > Corley, the president of Compete America, a technology industry
> coalition,
> > recalled the conversation. “We are simply trying to make sure that as
> they
> > are pursuing the rats they are not sinking the ship.”
> >
> > That acknowledgment, several lobbyists said privately, helped unlock an
> > impasse in negotiations.
> >
> > What emerged was a Senate measure that allows American technology
> companies
> > to procure many more skilled guest worker visas, raising the limit to
> > 110,000 a year from 65,000 under current law, along with a provision to
> > expand it further based on market demand. The bill would also allow these
> > companies to move workers on guest visas more easily to permanent
> resident
> > visas, freeing up more temporary visas for these companies.
> >
> > But it requires them to pay higher wages for guest workers and to post
> job
> > openings on a Web site, so Americans can have a chance at them. And it
> draws
> > a line in the sand between these technology firms and the mostly Indian
> > companies that supply computer workers on H-1B visas for short-term jobs
> at
> > companies in the United States.
> >
> > ... and I'm not necessarily saying that this is good news. Unemployment
> in
> > the US is running at 7.5% and this deal allows more foreign workers to be
> > brought in (although the bill hasn't been passed yet).
> >
> > Neil.
> >
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