Union welcomes Pacific Island guest worker program

A progressive new guest worker scheme could help meet the demand for seasonal labour in the Australian horticulture industry without taking away aussie jobs, said Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Paul Howes today.

"As long as guest workers are paid market rates and employed to fill genuine labour shortages I don't see why the AWU would oppose it," said Mr Howes.

"The benefits of such a scheme could be two-fold: boosting Australia's economic capacity and providing direct financial support to our Asia-Pacific neighbours.

"Unions have an important role to play in ensuring guest workers, like everyone else, are treated with respect and dignity in the workplace and paid a fair days pay for a fair days work.

"The AWU is part of early discussions moving forward on this issue to ensure that the impacts of such a program on the local and overseas workforce is monitored.

"The Howard Government's poorly scrutinised 457 visa program has left many Australians understandably sceptical about employing overseas workers to fill local labour shortages.

"As long as these workers are not used to under cut Australian wages or replace local workers there is no reason why we shouldn't promote these sorts of solutions.

"In our negotiations we will ensure there isn't any capacity for this scheme to be used by unscrupulous employers to drive down wages or force workers into indentured servitude."

The intention of these sorts of guest workers schemes would be that upon returning home at the end of the season the money earned is reinvested into poorer communities in the Asia-Pacific region where it is needed most.