Nolan Meats reveals plan for foreign workers mega

The director of an award-winning, 63-year-old South East Queensland business, has warned Australian companies could disappear unless an urgent fix is found for the worst workers drought in memory.

The director of iconic Gympie business Nolan Meats has warned Australian companies could disappear unless an urgent fix is found as it faces an employment climate unlike anything seen in its 63-year history.

Director Terry Nolan’s comments come as the company launches plans to build a 98-room workforce accommodation site near its East Deep Creek factory amid concerns it could be forced to shut if it fails to boost its slumping workforce.

Right now, the meatworks, an award-winning Gympie staple since 1958, is in uncharted territory.

“This is the worst situation Nolan Meats has experienced in over six decades of operation,” Mr Nolan told the Gympie Times.

The problem was being felt much wider than Gympie, too.

“An AMIC (Australian Meat Industry Council) survey highlighted that there is over 5000 meat industry vacancies across Australia,” Mr Nolan said.

“There was media in recent weeks about where McDonald’s had launched a huge recruitment drive to hire more than 11,000 people before the end of 2021.

“It appears to be a problem right across the country in many sectors.

“Where are the people?”

A statement from the company, lodged with its development application, says staff numbers have dropped from more than 500 to about 360 in the oast 14 months.

It is a question the company has been asking since the middle of last year.

A statement from Nolan Meats, included in its submission to the council, says its workforce had dropped by more than a quarter in the past 14 months.

“Nolan Meats employed over 500 staff in June 2020 while, currently, staff numbers have dropped to around 360,” the statement says.

This climate, the company says, has put the future of the 63-year-old Gympie business at risk.

“Staff shortages has caused throughput to slump to an average of 350 animals each day.

“An extended period of such low throughput has not been experienced by Nolan Meats in over 20 years.”

A “complex dynamic”, caused by the loss of transient workers like backpackers due to Covid restrictions, entry-level unskilled workers not presenting for work, and staff developed within Nolans being poached by other regional businesses, was blamed for the shortage.

The proposed worker housing hub will help offset the problems staff face from the ongoing rental squeeze in Gympie, the company says.

“As a result … Nolan Meats has reached the point where it must bring in foreign labour to keep the business in operation.”

Gympie’s prolonged rental squeeze had also added to the problem.

The company says the market is “highly competitive and does not allow people with no rental history a chance to get their foot in the door”.

The absence of low-cost accommodation following the shutdown of a caravan park in June last year compounded the issue as another option for non-local workers “to keep a regular and affordable roof over their heads” had been removed.

“As these workers are being forced to either travel in excess of an hour, pay for hotel rooms or even sleep in vehicles, positions are being swiftly abandoned,” statement says.

“With the continuing migration from southern states as well as the impending growth associated with the highway bypass, multiple renewable energy projects and potentially even the Brisbane Olympics it is highly likely that Gympie‘s affordable accommodation shortages will continue for at least the next 10 years.”

The complex will be built not far from Nolan Meats’ East Deep Creek factory if given approval.

As a result “the only viable option” was building temporary accommodation “for exclusive use by non-resident workers of the abattoir site, as a matter of urgency”.

Mr Nolan said there was expected to be about 5500 people workers from the Pacific Islands and Timor in Queensland by Christmas to help with picking crops and processing meat.

This would add to 15,600 special visa workers already in the country.

Mr Nolan said none of these workers were with Nolan Meats “as our preference is always to recruit locally first” – but bringing in overseas workers was now on the table “as we become frustrated with the lack of local applicants”.

The housing is planned to be built only metres away from the factory on East Deep Creek Rd.

It will include 12 cabin-style dormitories, each with eight bedrooms.

A two-bed bunkhouse is proposed too, along with three laundry rooms and 63 parking spaces.

The housing is not meant to be permanent but only for as long as the region continues to be impacted by the Covid, housing and overseas worker crisis which the company expected to last a decade.

The land was bought by the meatworks company in June this year for $495,000, according to CoreLogic data.

The complex will comprise of a dozen cabin-style dormitories, and needs to be running by January 2022 according to the company.

A three-bedroom home is currently sitting on the 2ha block.

Town planners Murray Associates, who have lodged the application on behalf of Nolan Meats, said the State Government have expressed their support “and seek priority assessment” of the plan “due to its time-sensitive nature”.

The workers will be brought into the country under the Federal Government’s Pacific Labour Scheme and the Australian Agriculture Visa Program.

The accommodation needs to be running by January 2022, the company said, with the goal of having the workers on site by March.

If the problems are not resolved, not only for at Nolan Meats but across the country, then the outlook was grim.

Nolan Meats wants to have the complex open by January 2022 and workers on site by March.

“Industries and businesses will readjust, find solutions or disappear, farmers won’t get livestock processed or produce harvested, farmers margins will fall and food prices will rise,” Mr Nolan said.

“Automation will have to increase and even that didn’t help Australia’s car industry, it went offshore.

“We just don’t need anymore of Australia’s manufacturing capacities heading off to set up overseas.

“Australia needs a broad manufacturing base to compliment the hospitality and tourism sectors, but these are the very industries under the most pressure at the moment.

“They just can’t flourish without people.

“They disappear without people.”

* This story has been updated to include comments from Nolan Meats director Terry Nolan.