If you’ve been to an airport recently, you would have noticed a new type of traveller. Decked out in work boots and slinging duffel bags over their shoulders, they check in at regional airline counters, bound for towns like Moranbah and Karratha. They’re heading to mining jobs in remote areas of Australia, where they will work long shifts for weeks at a time, only to fly out again for a break and then repeat the cycle. They are part of a phenomenon known as the fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workforce.
Lured by the promise of large salaries and a generous amount of days off between shifts, more and more people are being attracted to the mining sector in search of fortune. Skilled workers are leaving jobs in the cities and signing up to high-paying jobs with mining companies, but this type of transient work solution comes at a cost.
Indeed, these fly-in-fly-out, and also drive-in-drive-out (DIDO), arrangements are really only a short-term, quick-fix solution to the labour issues associated with this country’s resources boom. It is an approach that doesn’t address any of the deep structural issues of remote work, infrastructure investment and skills development in the Australian economy. [read more]
All electoral matter is authorised by Paul Howes, National Secretary