A race to the bottom

IT WAS disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising to read (CP, 21/11) “Regional apprentices upskilling for boom” that Construction Skills Queensland states that only three trade apprentices were trained per 100 trade workers in the region last year.

The LNP Federal Government have banned minimum apprentice numbers in their “code compliant” agreements, prohibiting companies that may tender for work with any portion of federal funding from having such a clause. This allows the companies to hide behind code compliance and makes it illegal for workers bargaining for such a clause.

This of course does nothing to position us as an area for the supposed influx in work also touted in the same edition of the paper and is actually manufacturing a skills shortage for the future.

Then, business and government will be able to say ‘hand on heart’ that there is a requirement to bring in 457 visa skilled worker migrants. Then they would be able to further exploit the workers (as if the casualisation scourge and wage freeze meaning that local workers are scared of losing their jobs isn’t enough) they will be able to drive down (further) wages, conditions and safety on the job; with a recent example of a migrant worker on a solar farm near Townsville, being paid $30 per day. Yep they’re constructing a race to the bottom. Rob Hill, Far Northern Organiser ETU