Commenting on the skyrocketing visa numbers and increasing reports of overseas workers being exploited while in Australia, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said today: The number of temporary business visas that are being issued is now double what it was in 1996 and there has been a 24% increase in the number of long stay (up to 4 years) business visas in the last year alone. The number of long stay business visas now stands at 50,000. With so many visas being issued, the Government seems unable to properly assess the validity of the applications and is unable to check that the overseas workers are getting the right wages and entitlements. Unions are very concerned of reports that employers are rorting the visas to avoid giving jobs to local workers so they can bring in poorly paid overseas workers and that this is increasing the competition on local workers to lower their pay and conditions. These overseas worker abuses highlight the ugly side of the Howard Governments deregulated job market. As if the wages and conditions of Australian workers are not under enough pressure from the Governments new IR laws, we now have what looks like an open slather approach by the Government seemingly to allow any employer who wants to bring in temporary workers from overseas to take Australian jobs. Recently we have seen: * Two hundred temporary workers from China issued with visas to work at an abattoir at Murray Bridge (SA) a town with unemployment above the national average and where late last year a major employer closed down with around 160 workers losing their jobs. * The Federal Government confirm that Filippino guest workers brought in to work in well-known Canberra restaurants were being underpaid up to $500 a week below the award. * Slovenian workers issued with the wrong type of visa and brought in to build part of the Holden production line at Elizabeth, SA another area that has high unemployment and where many car workers have recently lost their jobs. * The Department of Immigration investigating reports that US company Halliburton imported Indonesian workers to work 12 hour shifts for 80 days without a break digging ditches for its gas extraction operations in the outback. The startling increase in the number of visas being issued shows that the Government and employers are not trying hard enough to make sure that local people fill job vacancies first. It is essential that the Government and employers first look to fill these jobs with Australians. They then must make sure all temporary workers have decent wages and conditions that are equivalent to Australian workers generally, said Ms Burrow. The ACTU has written to the Commonwealth Ombudsman requesting an independent Inquiry into the Department of Immigrations temporary business visa program. Further Information: ACTU Complaint to Commonwealth Ombudsman re Business Visas March 2006 - Download below Media Contact: Ian Wilson 0408 513 849