Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet should concentrate on increasing skills, wages and conditions in the electrical trades sector rather than importing cut price labour from overseas the Electrical Trades Union said today..
The NSW Premier last week opened the door to allowing an additional two million people into the country in the next five years, whilst the Morrison Government is currently negotiating a free trade deal with Britain which will make it easier for hundreds of thousands more Britons to take Australian jobs.
This is despite the stagnant wages and working conditions indicating no competition amongst employers to attract staff.
“Dominic Perrottet and Scott Morrison are solving a problem which doesn’t exist,” said Michael Wright Assistant ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union of Australia.
“If the resource and sectors were suffering critical skills shortages, we would see rising wages and improving conditions. Instead, we’re fighting against insecure work and a race to the bottom with labour hire. Dumping thousands of temporary British migrants into our capital cities is only going to make these problems worse.
“And the answer to skills shortages is always more training for local apprentices, not bringing in vulnerable workers from overseas.
“We have also seen reports of worrying plans to abolish labour market testing which would allow major employers to import cheap labour to undercut their workforce without any statistical proof of a skills shortage.
“All Australians wage earners know they haven’t seen a pay rise in a decade, but meanwhile their mortgages, rents, and grocery and utility bills have all gone up.
“This feels suspiciously like Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet doing the bidding of their mates in the big end of town by bringing in cheap labour to undercut hardworking Australians, it’s a total betrayal.
“This is big business gearing up to pump up their profits at the expense of their workforce under the guise of a COVID recovery plan.
“We urgently need
