Trade raids: WA builder offers SA bricklayers big money to defect

It’s a case of big bickies for SA brickies, as WA’s biggest housebuilder offers lucrative deals to get our experienced bricklayers to cross the border.

Bricklayers, especially experienced hands such as Zoran Biscan, pictured on site at Fullarton, are in demand across Australia. Picture: Emma Brasier

Western Australia’s biggest house builder is trying to poach South Australian bricklayers, with whopping salaries of more than $100,000, plus entitlements.

A shortage of tradies amid Australia’s housing boom has prompted BGC Group to offer “experienced” SA bricklayers a base $108,000 salary to head west, plus superannuation and $2500 relocation costs.

Australia is in the grip of a trades shortage, as low interest rates, and the HomeBuilder scheme fuel unprecedented demand for new homes and renovations.

South Australia’s largest builder, Hickinbotham Group, is offering an “estimated” salary of $80,000 for bricklayers, according to an ad placed on Career One last week.

But there are concerns that a lack of apprentices could lead to a shortage of bricklayers in coming years.

Master Builders Association SA chief executive Will Frogley said that like most building trades, demand for bricklayers is “far exceeding supply”, with not enough trainees.

“Finding young bricklayers gets more challenging every year,” he said. “Youth unemployment is high but there are excellent opportunities in construction trades for those who want them.”

He said bricklaying was hard work but also rewarding.

“You are in high demand so the pay is excellent. Very rarely do you have to deal with being underemployed, with the percentage of brickies in full-time employment extremely high,” he said.

Mr Frogley said the federal and state governments needed to do more to attract “young adult” apprentices, aged above 21.

“Currently employers who engage apprentices 21 years and older receive an additional $4000 if they (jobs) are on the National Skills Needs List,” Mr Frogley said. “However, for many employers, comparing the salary of a ‘young adult’ apprentice to a junior apprentice, even with the $4000 incentive, the numbers don’t stack up.”

Campbelltown-based Probuild Bricklayers owner Steve Lolosidis said there was a shortage of apprentices.

“Ten years ago there was a glut of bricklayers, now you can’t get them,” he said.

“The solution, I suppose, is to get more apprentices through the system but there also has to be better incentives for the host (employer) because there are none really.

“Young ones don’t want to work hard, they find this job too hard but you’re going to find a problem in the next 10 years where bricklayers will be extremely rare.”

He has seven employees in his “gang” with his youngest 42 and that work was “flat out”.