Queensland manufacturing company blasts TSMIT, DAMA inaction on migrant worker wages

A Queensland manufacturing company says new wage standards for migrant workers will push the business toward bankruptcy.

Mervin Brutas, Damian Goitiandia, owner Paul Carta, Evan Copley, Justin Roveglia, Preston Pershouse, Ricardo Abarico, Jake Marinoni and Brodie Macarone of Ingham-based Carta & Co, the largest manufacturer of cane transporters in Australia. Picture: Cameron Bates

An innovative Queensland manufacturing company servicing the sugar industry on the east coast of Australia says new unreasonable wage standards for migrant workers will push the business – and others like it – toward bankruptcy.

Paul Carta of Ingham-based Carta & Co, the largest manufacturer of cane transporters in Australia, said rates paid to migrant workers had significantly increased due to the Department of Home Affairs’ new Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold.

“I’m not going to drive myself to bankruptcy … so what will happen is if I see the business declining at a certain rate, I will give as much fair warning as I can to my staff and customers and then I’ll get euthanised,” he said.

Carta administration executive Carey Cooling-Wallen said the business employed 12 Australians and 11 migrant workers from the Philippines because of labour shortages.

She said its fully qualified Australian workers were paid above industry standards (AMSR), as were the migrant workers who worked 38-hour weeks, received penalty rates and healthcare, and “a work-life balance”.

Carta & Co welder Mervin Brutas on the factory floor. Picture: Cameron Bates

Ms Cooling-Wallen said Townsville Enterprise Limited had previously negotiated a special Designated Area Migration Agreement with Home Affairs for the North Queensland region, which allowed for a number of employment concessions, including age and language requirements.

She said that according to new TSMIT requirements, however, minimum wages for new migrant workers had increased from $56,000 – “which we pay well over anyway” – to $70,000 as of July 1 last year.

“That means that from that point forward any new workers we bring in had to be paid $70,000 and that would then mean that every worker we had here, migrant or Australian, would all be pushed up to that.”

Paul Carta said Ingham-based Carta & Co was a fabricating and manufacturing business mainly engaged in the manufacture of sugar-cane transporters as we as the “manufacture and supply of components and services to keep the existing company going in the industry”. Picture: Cameron Bates

Ms Cooling-Wallen said the decision had widespread ramifications for North Queensland, saying any migrant worker brought into the country, including child-care and aged-care workers, would all be paid $70,000.

She said other parts of Australia, including the Northern Territory, had been given DAMA concessions but Home Affairs was still yet to act in North Queensland.

“We are trying to do an agricultural job, competing against mining wages, to supply the agriculture industry,” she said.

“We are just trying to keep our wages at a reasonable level without it being ridiculous so that the price of our product isn’t ridiculous – we are the last man standing in Queensland.”

Carta & Co boilermaker Damien Goitiandia welding on the factor floor in Ingham, North Queensland. Picture: Cameron Bates

Registered migration agent Simone Everett of HQ Migration Solutions in Townsville said TEL had done a good job establishing the DAMA but it was currently being stonewalled by the government.

“The government isn’t acting swiftly around responding to the TSMIT concessions that employers in this region need because (few occupations) can carry a minimum base salary of $70,000,” she said.

“Townsville are at the mercy of the Federal Government, specifically the labour-agreement area of the Department of Home Affairs.”

Carta & Co apprentice fitter and turner Jake Marinoni on the factor floor in Ingham, North Queensland. Picture: Cameron Bates

Ms Everett said the issue was Australia wide, noting similar issues in Western Australia

Both TEL and Home Affairs have been contacted for comment.

Carta & Co fabrication supervisor and leading hand Glenford Merilos, a naturalised Australian, with migrant metal-processing workers Christian Castillo and Jan Vincent Pardinas. Picture: Cameron Bates

Merilos ‘bloody, definitely’ a true-blue Aussie

Former migrant worker Glenford Merilos said he and his young family would always be grateful to Carta & Co for his employment and helping him obtain Australian citizenship.

The married father-of-one, 34, had called Ingham home for the past four years but been in Australia for about 15 years.

“Paul (Carta) gave me a chance to get my permanent residency, that’s why I moved here from Sydney,” he said, adding that New South Wales had closed the pathway to PR status.

Migrant worker Raphael Gumabon spray painting at Ingham-based Carta & Co, the largest manufacturer of cane transporters in Australia. Picture: Cameron Bates

Mr Merilos, originally from Manilla, said he had not looked back since arriving in tropical North Queensland.

“It’s incredible, so beautiful, I’ve never seen like this before because I used to work in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, the Northern Territory was not too bad, but I love it here, the green (environment) and how good the people are as well,” he said.

“And of course it’s great for my daughter as well because it is not so crowded anymore and we save money because the accommodation is a lot less (than the city).”

Mr Merilos said he considered himself to be a true-blue Aussie.

“Bloody definitely mate,” he laughed.

Carta & Co owner Paul Carta said he considered his migrant workers to be the next generation of Australian citizens, saying the Hinchinbrook had been founded on the backs of the labour of immigrants.

Originally published as Queensland manufacturing company blasts TSMIT, DAMA inaction on migrant worker wages