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Andrews stands by foreign meatworkers agreement

The federal Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews, has defended an agreement to allow abattoir operators to recruit international labour.

The WA meat industry says the agreement has been a long time coming for companies experiencing staff shortages due to the mining boom.

Now operators will be able to hire overseas staff on three year visas, as long as the company commits to training Australian workers to meet a 15 per cent quota of their work force.

Abattoir operators must also pay international workers a minimum salary of $41,850.

Mr Andrews told the Rural Report, the agreement is meant to provide relief for employers.

"This is not meant to be a permanent solution. The bringing of temporary skilled migrants in from overseas or temporary skilled workers is to plug a gap where there is a skills shortage and we don't want this displacing Australian skilled workers, so that's why the higher rate of pay," he said.

The Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union says it does not believe there was any need for the Federal Government to negotiate an agreement allowing WA abattoir operators to recruit overseas workers.

The meat industry has been negotiating the labour agreement since July last year.

Des Griffiths from the Western Australian Meat Marketing Corporation says the agreement will mean he can bring in 50 workers to meet increasing demand on his existing staff.

The WA secretary of the union, Graeme Haynes, says the problems within the industry centre on pay and conditions.

"I believe that the underlying causes for the poor retention rates and the difficulty in recruiting lie really in the wages and the conditions that exist in the meat processing industry," he said.

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