The Wire

Enterprise Migration Agreements and the use of 457 temporary migration visas have been a hot topic this week since the announcement on Friday that 1700 foreign workers will be imported to work on the Roy Hill project, owned by Gina Rineharts Hanckock Prospecting. Mining companies say they can’t get local skilled workers to staff projects and are being forced to use overseas sourced labour, but Unions are saying that goverment needs to do a propper market place skills test before giving Enterprise Migration Agreements the green light as they believe there are plenty of workers willing and able to work in roles that will be filled by migrant workers.