Employers slam AWU plan to tie migration to union membership

Employers slam plan, declaring migration should not be used to recruit union members.

National secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Daniel Walton. Picture: Grant Wells

Companies employing migrant workers would have to ensure they were union members and also support the training of an Australian worker for a similar role, under an Australian Workers Union proposal to be pitched to the Albanese government’s jobs summit.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox slammed the proposal expected to be endorsed at the AWU national conference in Sydney this week, declaring migration should not be used to recruit union members.

Under a proposed “compact” between employers and unions to address skills shortages, the AWU says employers taking on migrants should either provide a traineeship or apprenticeship in their organisation for an Australian in the same role, or contribute to a pool of funding to train Australians for the role filled.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said if it was accepted that it was in the national interest for Australians to fill Australian jobs, “it should follow that employers be made to take real measures to ensure they’re filling the jobs they create with Australians”.

“If hiring an Australian isn’t possible today, employers should have to make sure it’s possible tomorrow,” he said.

“Employers shirk their responsibility to train Australians, create a skills gap, fill the gap with short-term migrants, exacerbate the skills gap further, repeat. It’s human centipede-level genius.

“If we don’t address things now we’ll be letting business turn Australia into a Saudi-style guest worker economy.”

He said the AWU was calling for new migrants to be signed up to their relevant union as a default to mitigate exploitation and wage theft.

“I know the usual parties will hyperventilate at the idea of default union membership, but if you put down the ideology for a second it makes obvious sense,” he said. “The weight of global research indicates the strongest counterweight to worker exploitation is trade union membership. If we want to fix a culture where migrant workers get ripped off and undermine our employment system then union membership is the best and most efficient weapon we have.”

Migrant workers could have an ability to opt out of union membership, the union said.

Mr Willox said it was good to hear the AWU acknowledge and support the important role of skilled temporary migration.

“It is the role of the fair work ombudsman to educate migrant workers about their workplace rights and to enforce workplace laws,” he said. “The FWO devotes a lot of resources to this area and is very effective.”

Mr Willox said employers were already obliged to make significant payments to the Skilling Australians Fund for each visa applicant.

“Employers will always seek to train workers locally before resorting to the expense and complexity of bringing in workers from overseas,” he said.

“Skills shortages are currently so intense that bringing in skilled workers from overseas can become the only option for positions that need to be filled quickly. Hopefully there is room for understanding from unions at the jobs and skills summit to support access to skilled workers from overseas without a raft of unnecessary or duplicated conditions.”

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox.

Mr Walton said “Right now, no one actually knows where the money funnelled into the Skilling Australians Fund goes or how it’s spent”. “And the new system would have to apply uniformly, because without the participation of every state we won’t solve a national skills crisis,” he said.

Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor said the government’s focus was on a collaborative national approach to addressing skills shortages and it would prioritise skills reform through a co-ordinated negotiation process.

“We welcome all big ideas and the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit in September will be an important forum to explore and scrutinise these ideas and agree upon the steps required to ensure our VET sector delivers the skills Australian workers and businesses need,” he said.