Victorian meat processors join call for Pacific Island workers
Horticulture is not alone in its battle to bring seasonal workers to Victoria, as other industries start to feel the pinch from the ongoing worker shortage.
VICTORIA’S meat processors are pleading for access to overseas workers, as the farm labour shortage threatens to spill over into another key industry.
About 160 meat workers are needed at processing sites across Victoria but, with the Andrews Government yet to finalise quarantine protocols for Pacific Island workers to enter the country, it’s feared the roles are unlikely to be filled soon.
“They needed them (the workers) a month ago,” Brad Seagrott, chief executive of labour hire company Food Industry People Group, said.
“This is costing the processors significant money in production and could impact the entire viability of the workforce.”
It comes as the Victorian Government continues to come under pressure for allowing 1200 tennis players and support staff to enter Melbourne for the Australian Open, while fruit and vegetable growers struggle to find harvest workers, putting the $8.5 billion industry at risk.
While much of the farm labour shortage has been focused on horticulture so far, it is not the only sector reliant of foreign labour, with many temporary skilled visa holders and Pacific Island workers also working in meat processing.
The FIP Group has managed to bring meat workers under the Pacific Labour Scheme – a sister scheme to the popular seasonal worker program – except in Victoria, which still has not finalised a quarantine pathway almost two months after promising to reopen the scheme.
Mr Seagrott said seven of his nine Victorian clients were experiencing a “desperate shortage”, and their requests would fill an entire plane.
“We just need someone to make a decision – even if a pathway is approved, it’s still going to be a six to eight week process before people can arrive,” he said.
“We can’t be in a position where we’re still two months away from a decision.”
Mr Seagrott said the FIP Group was standing with the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, which includes some of the nation’s biggest horticulture producers: “We are fighting this battle together or the wider agricultural food sector.”
Victorian Agriculture Minister Mary Anne Thomas said the Government was continuing to work on options to address the shortage.
“While quarantine arrangements have been left up to the states and territories, the Federal Government could make things a lot easier and faster for industry by undertaking the risk stratification work they committed to at national cabinet which could make the Pacific Islands a declared “green zone” and clear the way for movement without quarantine requirements,” she said.
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