At least 3 unions who represent some of Australia’s lowest-paid workers are relying on foreign talent to promote their cause.

United Voice employ nine people on 457 visas while two other unions — the Australian Education Union and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employee's Association - have also hired staff on the temporary skilled work visas, according to a report in The Australian.

 “The revelation that multiple unions have employed subclass 457 visa holders is an act of incredible hypocrisy and duplicity given the long-term campaign the union movement has waged against the 457 program,"Assistant Minister for Immig¬ration and Border Protection Michaelia Cash told The Australian.

The Immigration Department has revealed that “workplace relations adviser is the most frequently sponsored occupation’’ among unions, “with the other sponsored occupations being copywriter, organisation and methods analyst, database administrator, and training and development professional’’.

Most of those on union-sponsored 457 visas are from Britain and the US, with workers also coming from India, The Netherlands, Canada and Singapore, answers¬ to a Senate inquiry into Australia’s temporary work visa programs revealed.

The average salary is $72,497, the minimum salary is $52,080 and the highest salary is $118,502.

“The occupations … targeted by unions employing overseas workers as workplace relations advisers and copywriters gives a clear insight into their double standards,’’ Senator Cash said.

“On the one hand, we have unions employing foreign workers to do the frontline agitating of Australian unions.

“Equally ironic is the employment of copywriters as 457 workers directly employed by the union movement to help orchestrate the misleading and damaging campaign against foreign labour provisions in the China-Australia free-trade agreement.’’

Departmental records reveal that in the past five years, several unions, including from the Maritime Union of Australia and the Transport Workers Union, have sponsored 41 workers on 457 visas.

“It is time for the Labor opposition and union movement more generally to stop their duplicitous nonsensical campaign against foreign workers,’’ Senator Cash said.

“Not since John McTernan was employed as a communications director on a 457 visa in Julia Gillard’s office, from where we witnessed a political campaign against 457 visas, have we seen such blatant hypocrisy from the union movement. I call on each union to provide evidence of the labour-market testing they undertook … to demonstrate there were no Australian workers able to undertake the roles.