QLD Mining and Energy Bulletin
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/42546
T Steve Knott has been AMMA's Chief Executive since 1997. Steve is a passionate advocate of the need for fl exible labour relations arrangements at the enterprise level that facilitate direct employer-employee relationships. Steve actively encourages resources sector employers in Australia to embrace fl exible labour relations legislative changes and leads AMMA's lobbying efforts on their behalf to relevant government, opposition and minor party politicians at state and federal government level. Before joining AMMA, Steve held senior ER/HR positions with the Hydro Electric Commission Tasmania including the positions of Employee Relations Manager and Human Resources Manager. Steve is a member of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council, the International Labour Advisory Committee, is AMMA's representative on the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's General Council and holds various other representative roles on behalf of AMMA. he success or otherwise of resource industry employers in handling any potential adverse community reaction to fl y-in, fl y-out [FI-FO] operations in Queensland is being closely watched by resource employers across the nation – who see the handling of this issue as an important precedent given the emerging challenges facing the industry in terms of sourcing appropriately skilled and experienced labour over the next few years. By 2015, the resource industry will need to fi nd at least a further 40,000 people in addition to those already working in the sector – a feat made even more challenging when one considers Australia already has a low and steady national unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent. And whilst resource industry employers are taking steps to address the skills shortage under their own steam such as: increasing in- house training; multi-skilling existing workers; and improving skills utilisation between roles – The Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) recognises part of the solution to meeting the resource industry's labour force challenges lies in accessing skilled and semi-skilled labour from overseas as an adjunct to training Australian workers and sourcing workers locally. Indeed, a recent survey of AMMA members found over 74 per cent of resource industry employers were looking to skilled migration as a solution to projected labour shortages over the next 12 months. However, AMMA is concerned – particularly in those areas in which doubts are already being expressed about the benefi t of resource industry operations fl owing through to the local community that the increasing presence of foreign workers may be used by some to further their argument that local communities are somehow missing out on the benefi ts of the resources boom. Exacerbating this situation, employers also have to contend with the claims already being aired by elements of the union movement that the engagement of foreign workers somehow deprives Australian workers of jobs. This is an argument which AMMA believes overlooks the requirements of employers in terms of both the skill-set and expertise needed in the increasingly complex operations being developed within the industry. Under the Federal Government's recently announced Enterprise Migration Agreements [EMAs] package, 'mega' resource projects with a capital expenditure of $2 billion or more and a peak workforce of at least 1,500 will be provided with streamlined access to skilled migrants, pre-qualifying employers for sponsorship and reducing agreement negotiating timeframes. With such a threshold in place, six of the 13 projects eligible nation-wide are in fact based in Queensland. Since the announcement of the EMAs program, there has also been considerable industry discussion as to whether the current threshold limits applying to EMAs need to be broadened. AMMA members have expressed their desire to see the capital expenditure threshold for EMAs reduced to $1 billion and the peak workforce requirement reduced to 500. If such amendments were made a further 12 Queensland projects would be eligible to participate in the EMAs scheme. As the prospect of more resource industry employers accessing temporary and permanent overseas skilled labour as a small, but important, component of the resource industry workforce increases, Queensland operators over the next few years will be at the forefront of handling community discussion and debate about the role skilled migration plays in assisting our sector. The debate needs to be engaged in at all levels in a rational and compassionate way in order to ensure the benefi ts of the current resource boom fl ow across the industry, the economy, all workers and their families. QLD Mining and Energy Bulletin Spring 2011 [5]