Ombudsman to check 457 visas

    by: SID MAHER
    From: The Australian
    March 19, 2013


THE Fair Work Ombudsman will be given the power to monitor and enforce 457 visa compliance in the latest toughening of the temporary foreign worker program.

Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten yesterday announced that the Fair Work Ombudsman would be given the power to ensure workers on 457 visas were employed in the right jobs and were receiving market salary rates.     :)

The move will bring in about 300 extra inspectors to police the scheme and they will be charged with ensuring 457 visa holders are paid at the market rate and that the job they are performing matches the job title and description approved in their visa. At the moment, the Immigration Department has 34 inspectors policing 457 visas. The extra costs would be met out of the budget.

Mr O'Connor said there had not been sufficient resources in place to police the 457 program.


But combined with the inspectors from the Immigration Department, the government would now have a much greater capacity for oversight.

"These reforms are vital, they are important to the scheme. They will ensure a greater degree of confidence in the efficacy of these arrangements," Mr O'Connor said. "They will ensure that employers do the right thing and they will ensure that local workers will get the jobs when there are not genuine skills shortages in our economy."     :)

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's director of employment, education and training Jenny Lambert said the announcement underlined concerns that the 457 visa issue was caught up in "policy-making on the run".

"In the interests of good policy, the government is asked to put a moratorium on any further announcements about the 457 visa and skilled migration generally until there is an opportunity for the business community and key stakeholders to sit down with the minister and government to address the issues in a rational way," she said.

AiGroup chief executive Innes Willox said the very small number of employers who abused the 457 visa system should face the appropriate sanctions.     ;)

"As such, the announcement today that the Fair Work Ombudsman staff would monitor employers of 457 visas would, if made in isolation, appear reasonable," he said. "However, we need to tread warily given the politicisation of this issue."

The move will bring in about 300 extra inspectors to police the scheme and they will be charged with ensuring 457 visa holders are paid at the market rate and that the job they are performing matches the job title and description approved in their visa.     :)