THE skilled migration scheme would be revamped under a Labor government to make it quicker to bring in foreign workers but harder to exploit them.
The changes, which will be moved by immigration spokesman Tony Burke at this weekend's ALP national conference, constitute an attempt to sharpen the party's pitch to business before the election later this year.
Mr Burke said he had formed his proposal after consultations with business groups on how to boost the flexibility of Australia's skilled migration scheme while making it fairer.
"The views of business have ranged from some believing there isn't a problem at all to a majority acknowledging the system needed to be adjusted to clean up the rorts of the last two years," Mr Burke said. Rorts included underpayments, workers paid in Chinese currency and workers forced to pay exorbitant rents deducted from their pay.
Labour shortages have led to a boom in the number of skilled migrants in Australia. Immigration Department figures show the number grew from 77,880 in 2004-05 to 97,340 in 2005-06.
With the rapid growth of the skilled migration program - which now accounts for 69 per cent of migration - has come a rise in the number of allegations of exploitation.
Mr Burke's changes attempt to balance the needs of the business community, which is struggling to find enough workers, against the concerns of the union movement, which complains that temporary migrants working on so-called 457 visas are being exploited.
"There has to be a way of making this system work for business without exploiting visa holders on the way through," he said. Mr Burke said feedback from business indicated frustration about the time taken to process skilled migrant applications.
"In the mining industry there have been cases of highly specialised skilled employees in international demand, where the only reason business has missed out on them is because the Government took a number of months to process a straightforward application," he said.
Mr Burke said he would propose charging business a slightly higher "fast-track" rate so that applications for certain types of highly skilled workers could be processed within four weeks. Businesses pay up to $70 for a skilled-migrant application.
Mr Burke's plan to reduce rorts includes replacing regional certifying bodies with local employment authorities, which would provide evidence about local labour market conditions.
He said the employment authorities would do labour market testing if a company wanted to employ a foreign worker on a rate below a salary benchmark Labor would introduce. They would also be responsible for determining the "local prevailing rate of pay" for in-demand occupations, drawing on a policy from the US.
The changes aim to stop employers from underpaying migrants by giving the Government's workplace watchdog, the Office of Workplace Services, the power to enforce the employer-nominated rate of pay on a migrant's visa.
Currently, only award rates of pay can be enforced by the OWS, even if they are lower than what appears on a migrant's visa.
"No employer should find a competitor who can undercut them by importing industrial conditions of poorer nations into Australia," Mr Burke said.
"Business doesn't need the worst operators getting away with rorts - it just needs the best people to fill genuine shortages."
Cath Hart - The Age - April 24, 2007
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