Staff offered help to find work
WORKERS sacked by Ostwald Bros in Dalby and the Darling Downs will be offered a special information session in the future to help them find more work.
Western Downs Mayor Paul McVeigh said the council was working with the Department of State Development to organise a session for staff laid off by the administrators of the struggling company.
“What we have done this morning is we’ve had a conversation with State Development and we’re going to put on a workshop to tell them what the job opportunities are for those laid-off workers,” he said.
“We’ve spoken to (the department) and learned that it wouldn’t go well earlier today.
“We’ll try to pull that together in the near future – that’s what we’re trying to do to offset the angst that people will have.
“We’re working day and night to ensure the sacked employees are back in employment very quickly.”
Cr McVeigh said he was optimistic of workers’ chances to get employment quickly, saying the Western Downs had plenty of construction projects sitting in the pipeline.
“We have tremendous job opportunities out here, (but) what they look like right now we’re not 100% sure,” he said.
“Council has approved billions of dollars' worth of renewable energy projects.
“From an agricultural point of view, we approve feedlots just about every (council) meeting – all those projects will need construction jobs.”