Recruitment companies that sponsor workers on 457 visas in order to contract them out to industry will now be required to use labour hire agreements, under new legislation that came into effect this month.
Recruitment companies that sponsor workers on 457 visas in order to contract them out to industry will now be required to use labour hire agreements, under new legislation that came into effect this month.
Previously, recruitment companies and labour hire firms could sponsor 457 visa workers and on-hire them to companies as contractors.
The new laws will also require recruitment companies to meet several employee and training quotas.
Under a labour agreement, 5 per cent of a recruitment company’s skilled workforce must be made up of recent Australian graduates and 15 per cent of their trade workforce must be Australian apprentices.
Companies will also have to commit 2 per cent of their entire payroll to training.
Recruitment and Consulting Services Association Ltd policy adviser, Charles Cameron, said the legislation would place an unfair burden on recruitment companies, especially smaller firms.
“Essentially, what the government is trying to do is find a backdoor way to get labour hire companies to commit to training their overall workforce,” he said.
Mr Cameron said the legislation had been introduced without notice and would result in a backlog of 457 visa applications.
“We have examples of existing workers in the country on 457 visas that are about to expire, who are going to have to leave,” he said.
Mr Cameron said the legislation had been introduced partly to address employer breaches of the 457 visa program.
“If you’ve identified those organisations, then why not bring in sanctions for those organisations that abuse the system,” he said.
One recruitment consultant told WA Business News there did not seem to be a clear process in place to apply for the labour agreements.
“This will have an impact not only on our business, but our clients who are the major companies in town,” he said.
“No-one can tell us how long it’s going to take [to receive the agreement]. It was taking up to 12 weeks to process applicants as it was.”
A consultant for Ambit Recruitment said the change in policy could cost the company up to $25,000 if a planned recruitment trip to London had to be cancelled.
Australian Visa and Migration Services managing director, Allan Hodder, said the legislation was likely to create further delays in recruiting workers.
“I know we’ve received expressions of concern from a lot of our clients in the oil and gas, mining and construction industries,” he said.
“There’s a considerable amount of misunderstanding. I’ve heard people say recruitment companies are no longer going to be able to perform the [457 visa] service and that’s simply not true.”
Mr Hodder said there was also some concern about how agreements would be issued.
“It’s not like a visa application or sponsorship. In those instances, the law says if you complete a form and pay a fee, you have a valid application. This labour agreement is at the sole discretion of the immigration minister,” he said.
