Login / Join
Immigration Daily News Austrade calls for lower salary and language thresholds for hospitality work visas
- Font size: Larger Smaller
- Hits: 5423
- 3 Comments
Austrade calls for lower salary and language thresholds for hospitality work visas
Tourism Australia spends millions promoting regional Australia each year. Ironically, regional Australia does not have enough workers to support tourism. According to The Australian, Austrade has told the Productivity Commission that the unwillingness of locals to relocate to regional areas is creating a shortage of workers for regional tourism and it says that there is an urgent need to let foreign workers fill the gap.
The federal government department responsible for tourism, Austrade, says that regional tourism is suffering and urgently requires workers in hotels, pubs and restaurants. It says that as early as next year, there will be a shortage of some 56,000 workers in the hospitality industry. It has thus backed industry calls for increased flexibility of the 457 work visas and working holiday visas.
Austrade is seeking a lower English language competency threshold as well as a lower salary threshold for the foreign workers in the hospitality and tourism industry.
The Productivity Commission is currently looking at labour force mobility. Austrade believes that any changes to wage floors for 457 visa workers could have sweeping effects on Australia’s hotels, restaurants and cafes by making it easier for owners to hire staff from overseas and attract workers to regional tourist hubs.
In Austrade’s report to the Productivity Commission, it stated, “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 also told the 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.
The recent TTF-MasterCard Tourism Industry Sentiment Survey indicates that international visitation to Australia is at its highest and continues to rise and that domestic overnight visitors are spending $1 billion a week around the country.
The survey respondents cited increased concerns about a shortage of skilled labour (up 8% from last year) and, inadequate room supply (also up 8%) as key problems in the industry.
Austrade’s message is that if Australians will not support the industry by moving to regional Australia, then the only option left to strengthen tourism and hospitality is for foreigners to fill the gap. The hospitality and tourism industry generates about $42 billion a year and employs over half a million workers.
Comments
-
Friday, 21 March 2014Agree totally with Dolf. As mentioned in my previous correspondences, if the thousands of migrant workers who basically built the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme were compelled to sit for an IELTS with a score of 5, the bloody thing would still be in its planning stages. The fact that it is still operating without a mishap suggests that English language skills for the workers at least, is a nonsense. A mockery, in view of the established fact that the average Aussie can't pass such a test either.
-
Saturday, 22 March 2014
The Department talks about attracting "the best and the brightest". Unfortunately English language requirements prevent many of the "Best and Brightest" from ever entering our shores.
South Australia is full of highly skilled cooks and pastry cooks - many are Europeans on working holiday visas - all working and all with employers who want them to stay. Unfortunately they do not meet the English language requirements. Many are here for 2 years - proving they are able to work effectively in an English speaking environment. What a ridiculous situation that they have t go home, leaving employers wondering how they are going to cope. Training local people is not always the answer as Employers report that local people do not want to do the work - they don't like the hours and the fact they have to work weekends.
Immigration blog
As a migration law firm we cannot agree more. Currently we have Asian restaurants in regional Queensland and NSW who had to close their doors and lay off Australian staff due to an inability to recruit hospitality staff in Asia that meets the current English and qualification assessment requiremnts. To require a top chef from Hong Kong to do an assessment of his English, qualifications and experience for a temporary work visa is pure burocracy. It should be left to the employer to make the final decision on the suitability of an applicant.