Public comment has been invited on a new template labour agreement to help the tourism and hospitality sectors attract skilled workers from overseas.

 

The proposed template agreement establishes a common set of requirements tailored specifically for tourism and hospitality businesses recruiting skilled overseas workers, and follows discussions with industry at the Tourism Employment Roundtable hosted by the Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson in August 2011.

 

The development of a template labour agreement will help to ease labour and skills pressures by improving the tourism and hospitality industry’s ability to attract and retain labour in some of the occupations identified by the industry as being in critical shortage.

 

It would cover experienced waiters, chefs, bar attendants, hotel managers and other occupations, which can be hard to fill locally or may be ineligible under other migration programs.

 

Approved employers could nominate workers for temporary skilled subclass 457 visas using the template, enabling workers to be granted visas where they meet the requirements.

 

However, employers would need to show they are doing their best to employ and train domestic workers and paying market rates.

 

Mr Ferguson said that research had shown that there are 36,000 vacancies in the tourism and hospitality industry and by 2015 another 56,000 workers will be required, particularly in regional areas.

 

Views are sought from stakeholders on the list of eligible businesses, occupations, salary, skills levels and English language requirements.

 

The discussion paper is open for comment until 16 March 2012 and can be found at www.tourism.gov.au/labour